STUDIES  IN  THE  TECHNIQUE 

OF 

PROSE  STYLE 


BY 
PERCY  W.  LONG 


PRIVATELY    PRINTED 
CAMBRIDGE,  1915 


To  my  father-in-law 

JOHN  J.  ENNEKING 

whose  theory  and  practice  in  painting  have  partly 
confirmed  and  partly  suggested  the  principles 
of  teaching  which  underlie  this  book. 


COPYRIGHT,  1915,  BY  PERCY  W.  LONG 

ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 


CONTENTS 


Method 3 

Syllabus 5 

Symbols  Designating  Faults 14 

Precepts 15 

Models 41 

Notes 103 

Suggestions        .....         4         ...  106 

Sentences 123 

Connectives       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  131 

Historical  Review  134 


331043 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

The  method  of  teaching  for  which  this  volume  serves  is  an 
outgrowth  of  six  years  of  teaching  at  Harvard  University  and 
Radcliffe  and  Wellesley  Colleges.  Apart  from  the  influences  of 
Harvard  training  and  student  reaction,  I  am  aware  of  advantages 
derived  from  Alexander  Bain's  English  Composition,  Lane 
Cooper's  Theories  of  Style,  and  Scott  and  Denney 's  New  Composi- 
tion-Rhetoric. It  is  a  pleasure  to  acknowledge  also  the  helpful 
interest  of  my  friends  and  colleagues  who  have  shared  the  burden 
of  the  proofs:  Professors  C.  N.  Greenough  and  J.  L.  Lowes; 
Messrs.  Gordon,  A.  D.  Sheffield,  and  H.  W.  Smith. 

PERCY  W.  LONG 
23  August  1915 


METHOD 

Experience  of  some  years  has  shown  that  a  student  finds  less 
difficulty,  with  more  enjoyment  and  more  immediate  profit, 
when  working  from  models  than  in  mastering  a  lecturer's  ab- 
stract requirements  and  later  seeking  to  embody  them.  His 
mind  works  from  example  better  than  from  rule,  as  when  he 
sees  a  football  coach  tackle  a  dummy.  Directions  would  leave 
him  staring  and  uncertain.  Hence,  books  of  specimens.  But 
specimens  should  first  be  short,  and  each  should  illustrate 
clearly  one  point.  " Those  rules  of  old,  discovered  not  devised" 
were  discovered  in  striking  passages  by  famous  authors.  Such 
specimens  this  book  offers  the  student.  Here  he  sees  the  basis 
on  which  each  abstraction  is  founded:  the  whole  operation,  not 
the  latter  half,  passes  through  his  mind;  and  he  works  with  full 
understanding. 

The  purpose  of  the  following  illustrative  models  and  directions 
is  to  place  the  student  in  possession  one  by  one  of  a  number  of 
devices  of  literary  technique  and  enable  him  to  see  the  means  by 
which  writers  achieve  their  effects  in  exceptionally  interesting 
and  beautiful  passages.  Study  and  imitation  of  these  should 
(i)  sharpen  his  observation;  (2)  refine  his  taste  in  style;  (3) 
make  flexible  his  use  of  language;  and  (4)  develop  initiative  and 
ingenuity. 

Few  students  conceive  of  stylistic  "pattern"  (see  XVI,  p.  23): 
after  such  study,  few  should  lack  it.  With  this  basis  one  would 
naturally  go  on  to  observe  more  critically  the  devices  encount- 
ered in  reading,  and,  if  gifted,  to  devise  for  oneself  new  patterns. 

It  is  essentially  a  constructive,  as  opposed  to  a  corrective, 
method  of  teaching  composition,  breaking  away  from  the  wide- 
spread usage  of  criticizing  whatever  faults  or  virtues  the  student 
stumbles  on.  Here  he  is  given  a  definite  task,  in  which  he  can 
hardly  fail ;  and  by  mastery  step  by  step  of  methods  of  develop- 
ment, coherence,  emphasis,  connotation,  etc.  is  led  to  reasonable 
taste  and  skill.  (See  Leaflet  of  " Suggestions  to  Teachers"). 
Dissatisfaction  with  prevalent  methods  is  shown  by  those  who 
seek  to  teach  composition  by  the  cultivation  of  ideas:  only,  the 
ideas  chosen  are  astray  from  the  subject,  whereas  here  the  student 
is  thinking  intently  on  what  constitutes  excellence  in  writing. 


This  book  is  also  "fool-proof"  in  a  better  sense  of  the  word. 
It  is  a  protest  against  talking  down  to  the  undergraduate,  and 
particularly  against  addressing  instruction  that  'he  who  runs7 
may  derive  the  full  benefit.  Such  pandaring  to  haste  and  negli- 
gence does  not  develop  fibre  and  turns  away  those  who  most 
deserve  attention.  To  any  who  may  consider  the  method 
mechanical,  I  must  point  out  the  passages  from  Newman  and 
Stevenson  (PRECEPTS  X,  XI),  adding  that  the  method  applies 
equally  in  music  and  painting.  These  are  finger  exercises  —  or, 
better,  the  studies  of  artists  —  not  their  ultimate  efforts,  as 
masters,  at  self-expression.  Ultimate  expression  should  be 
spontaneous  and  unconscious  of  technique,  as  are  walking  and 
penmanship;  but  in  the  acquirement  of  correct  method  one 
must  think  of  what  he  is  about  —  here,  the  technique  of  style. 

The  following  methods  of  use  are  suggested  in  view  of  the  usual 
diversity  of  programs : 

1 .  A  graded  series  of  exercises  * 

a    According  to  the  immediate  needs  of  the  class, 
b    According  to  a  set  program  in  forms  of  writing. 

(In  either  case  the  types  of  development  and  means  of 
coherence  should  come  early.  Emphasis  goes  well  with 
argument;  diction  and  texture  with  description;  move- 
ment with  narration.  The  later  sections  are  intended 
for  advanced  classes  or  exceptional  students.  They  may 
also  serve  when  dealing  with  criticism,  in  courses  of 
literature  as  well  as  of  composition). 

2.  Assignment  of  specific  exercises  to  students  deficient  along 

certain  lines.  Thus,  if  a  student's  themes  lack  substance, 
he  should  work  at  consistence  in  words  (IIIAi).  If 
they  lack  purpose,  he  should  take  up  consecutiveness 
(IV  A  i)  and  purposiveness  (V  A  i  a). 

3.  Study  as  a  text-book,  or  book  of  specimens,  requiring  in 
themes  evidence  that  the  lessons  have  been  mastered. 

4.  Historical  study  of  English  prose  style.     See  p.  135. 

At  the  same  time  with  such  exercises,  there  should  be  some 
systematic  effort  to  induce  the  student  to  increase  his  vocabulary, 
and  to  introduce  flexibility  into  his  sentences  by  imitation  of 
various  forms  such  as  those  found  under  SENTENCES,  pp.  123-30. 

*For  the  method  of  imitation  see  MODELS,  No.  i,  footnote. 


SYLLABUS 

This  partial  classification  serves  for  cross  reference.  Under  each 
heading  in  the  columns  Roman  numerals  (XII)  refer  to  Precepts, 
bold  face  (12)  refer  to  Models,  italics  (12)  refer  to  Suggestions  — 
such  as  concern  that  heading.  The  numbers  immediately  after  many 
headings  are  additional  models  illustrating  that  point. —  Also,  refer- 
ences to  the  Syllabus  are  made  from  each  Precept  or  Model,  to  en- 
able one  to  find  other  passages  resembling  it  in  some  particular 
feature.  Thus,  under  Precept  XII  (p.  21)  stands  the  note  "Antitheti- 
cal style  (III  B)."  Under  III  B  is  found  the  subheading  "Antithe- 
sis" with  reference  to  several  other  examples. 


PREFATORY  REMARKS  (SUGGESTION  i)  PRECEPTS 

A     Meaning  of  the  word  style  I 

B     Importance  of  style  II-V 

C     Vagueness  of  general  directions  VI 

D    Examples  in  contrast  VII,  VIII 

E     Methods  used  by  authors  IX-XIII,  XXXV 

I     STRUCTURE 

Precepts        Model       Sugg. 
/XIV  2 

A     Securing  structure i  vyrj 

i     Selection j 

a     Disengaging  a  subject  from  allied  subjects.        78 

Defining  it  by  a  statement . .  . . xi,  xxix,  5. .  4 

Suiting  it  to  circumstances 

To  the  writer's  knowledge ....  2,  70 

To  the  persons  addressed 2  5 

For  usefulness ....  73 

For  interest ....  6 

According  to  their  information.  .  .35,  36 

To  the  occasion 

Space 6 

Decorum ....  4,  67 

Intended  effect ....  56 


Precepts        Model       Sugg, 

b    Introduction  of  details XX,  XXII 

Lines  of  expansion jr 

Development  by  subdivision 

Classes  and  sub-classes i 

Examples 

Typical . .  . .  xi,  xxvm,  XLI,  29, 31,  73  2 

Exceptional ...  .80 3 

Instances ....  48 4 

Particulars 

Details....  5,  23,33 5 

Circumstances ....  66 6 

Development  by  association 

Comparison 

Similarity ....  xvi,  56,  78 7 

Contrast ....  14,  21,  24,  51 8 

Alternatives ....  20 

Pro  and  con ...  .47,  55,  75 9 

Interaction ....  28 

Sequence 

Time ....  ix,   46 10 

Course  of  procedure n 

Cause  and  effect ....  12,  27 12 

Questions  anticipated . .  (see  IV  A  i  c)  13 

Development  by  elucidation ....  i,  25 

The  abstract  made  concrete,  .xxxvn  14 

Restricting  by  provisos xvm,  49 

Reasons  or  proof . .  16,  26,  34,  40,  83       13         15 

Limits  of  inclusion 

Proportion & 

According  to  importance ....  3 

"  "  interest 

"  "  intelligibility 35  vs.  36 

Digression 

Parenthesis XXVII 

Introduction  and  conclusion 

Placing  the  subject  in  its  field ....  30 . 
Apt  story  or  other  analogue ....  56,  78 

2.     Arrangement 16 

a     Logical 

Time i,  78 

Place 33 


Precepts       Model       Sugg, 

Process. .  . .  n,  23,  28 

Causal  connection 70,  75,  83 

b     Psychological 

For  clearness 

From  known  to  unknown ....  5, 73 

From  simple  to  complex ....  13,  78 

For  interest 

Climax ....  4,  6 

Surprise  by  apparent  change  of  plan 66 

Sense  of  discovering 43,  65 

For  conviction 16 

B     Revealing  structure 

1  Unity P1 

a     Topic  statements ....  20 10 

Focal  headings 

Key  phrases ....  4 

Key  sentences ....  vn,  I,  3,  8 17 

Associated  echoes 18 

b     Punctuation 

Paragraph,  section,  chapter,  etc xxix,  5  19         n 

Sentence  and  sentence  group  ....  59 12 

Word 1 3 

c     Marginalia 

Captions  (see  the  present  text) 

Outlining  numbers  and  letters  ....1,5 14 

d    Change  of  type  or  tone . .  . .  vi,  xxx 15 

2  Coherence 

a     Words  expressing  relations 

Conjunctive  expressions . .  xi,  4,  6,  10,  26,  49  20 

Pronouns 

Personal. .  .  .xn,  4,  5,  6,  7,  9,  51 21 

Demonstrative 22 

b     Repetition 

Echo.... 4,  18,34,58 23 

Synonyms ....  4,  38 

Transitional  statements ...  .4,  30 

c     Arrangement 

Continuity  of  grammatical  subject ....  xxn  24 

or  predicate 

Parallel  construction .  .  .  .iv,  I,  4,  13,  26,  48, 

58,73 25 


8 

Precepts  Model         Sugg. 

Balance . .  . .  v,  xir,  2,  45 26 

Inversion  (collocatio  verborum) ...  .4 27 


II     DICTION 

A     Accuracy XXVI 

1  Choice  among  synonyms XXV 

2  Idiom XXIII  16 

B     Expressiveness 

1  Choice  among  several  senses XXIII 

a     Usual ....  6,  7 

vs.  the  primary  * ....  23,  41 

b    Specific 35,  36 

vs.  the  general 

c     Novelty  of  application 17 

2  Use  of  associated  words 18 

a     Antonyms ....  26 

b    Synonyms ....  2 

3  Connotation 

a     Aesthetic 68,  84 28 

vs.  the  commonplace ix 

b     Popular  words ....  23,  56 29 

vs.  the  learned . .  .  .iv XXIII 

c     Passionate ....  xxxi,  79 69 

vs.  the  indifferent. . . . xxxv 

C     Appropriateness 7 

1  To  the  subject 

a     Conformity  to  the  general  tone ....  53 

b     Discord  ....  24 

2  To  the  occasion 

a     For  decorum  in  the  writer 

Reputable  use  (illustrated  throughout) 

b     For  intelligibility 

Technicalities . .  . .  iv 

Localisms ....  (mentioned  in  36) 

Archaisms  ...  37 

Barbarisms ....  54 

*  Of  several  current  senses,  one  represents  the  conservative  historical  use  of  the 
word,  as  in  fine,  nice,  surprise.  Certain  writers,  notably  Ruskin,  are  careful  to  pre- 
serve historical  connotations. 


Precepts       Model       Sugg. 

c     For  impressi veness 

Restraint ....  xxi 

vs.  hyperbole ....  xxn,  14 

Colors  of  good ....  58,  82 ig 

and  evil ....  xxxix,  38,  47 30 


III     TEXTURE  * 

A     Consistence :  concise XVII  20 

or  diffuse XXXIV 

1  In  words XXVIII 

a     Idea  words 21 

vs.  connective ....  XIH,  30,  49,  83 

b  General  (class  words) ....  17,  48 31 

vs.  specific  words . .  .  .42,  68 

c  Abstract ....  xn,  xvi,  xxi,  15,  27,  51,  59,  76  32  22 

vs.  concrete  .  10,  23,  31,  52,  53,  5$,  57,  60, 

64,77,79 XXVII  33 

2  In  sentences XVIII 

a     Complex ....  xvi,  xxn,  38, 37, 64,  84 

vs.  simple  statement ....  x,  6,  74 

b     Implication  f  •  •  •  •  xvi,  xxv,  84 34 

vs.  the  patent . .  . .  ix,  x,  I,  37,  52,  60,  72  .... 

c     Brief ...  .2,  19,  26 35 

vs.  detailed. .  .  .9,  60 XXXVII  36 

tautological  (copia  verborum) 37 

repetitious  . .  .  .58 38 

B     Continuity :  emphatic 23 

or  even. .  .  .xxi,  7,  12,  23,  34 XXIV,  XXXVIII 

i     Emphasis  by  arrangement 

a     Climax ...  .4,  25,  66,  74 

vs.  anticlimax . .  . .  1 1 , 44 

b    Variety  in  sentence  structure 

Inversion  (fore  and  aft) ....  4,  5 

Periodic  sentences ...  .4,  48,  49,  59 

Short  sentences ....  (see  IV  c  i) 

*The  weave  or  pattern  according  to  which  the  words  are  assembled,  distin- 
guished from  structure  as  the  organization  of  thought. 

t  Writing  which  discloses,  as  one  reflects,  many  careful  provisos  and  suggestions; 
whereas  the  patent  reveals  all  at  a  glance. 


IO 

Precepts        Model        Sugg. 

In  succession . .  . .  vi,  xxix,  19, 40,  74 

After  long  sentences ....  xxxiv 

Suspense ....  4 

2  Emphasis  by  interruption 

a    Abruptness ....  XL,  15,  62,  73 

b    Antithesis ....  xn,  19,  26,  51 39 

c     Challenge  (rhetorical  question) ...  .45,  66. 

3  Emphasis  by  repetition 

a     Echo. .  .  .2,  3,  34,  55,  58 41 

b    Restatement ...  .25,  58 

c     Explicit  reminder ....  58 

4  Emphasis  by  intensification  * 

a     Concreteness  ....4,6,28,31, 47, 60,  66 ....  42 

b    Hyperbole . .  .  .xxxix,  4,  14,  16 43 

vs.  litotes ....  3 

c     Irony. .  .  .55,  66 44 

d    Emotion ....  5,  60 

C     Finish:  polished  ...  .4,  25 24 

or  plain ....  21 

1  Allusive.  .  .  .vi,  x,  2,  3,  28,  49,  54,  68,  70,  80 

vs.  the  direct . .  . .  v,  9,  65,  67,  83 

2  Ornate xvi,  26,  38,  58,  61,  64,  68,  82 XL  45 

vs.  the  natural. .  .  .x,  6, 10,31,52,  57 46 

3  Figurative vn,  xxxn,  45,53,  81 32         47 

vs.  the  literal . .  .  .  i,  xxi,  6,  7,  83 

D     Attitude:f  impersonal .  .  i,  vn,  xxi,  18, 19,34, 69 

or  personal . .  . .  vi,  xi,  75 XLI 

1  Staid ....  12,  37,  63  (demure),  80 48 

vs.  vivacious ....  14,  42 49 

2  Formal ....  9,  38,  61 

vs.  informal ....  x,  24,  33,  65 50,  51 

3  Nonchalant ....  xvi,  72 

vs.  earnest . .  .  .2, 16,  22,  58 

4  Reserved 9 

vs.  outspoken  (candid) .  .  .  v,  ix,  50, 65, 67, 74  52 

5  Dry 8,20 

*  Perhaps  better  treated  as  a  separate  main  head  (Pitch)  under  Texture,  intensifi- 
•cation  producing  a  high  key. 

t  Distinguished  from  Tenor,  which  represents  the  general  drift  of  thought, 
"whereas  this  concerns  manner  or  pose. 


II 

Precepts         Model       Sugg. 

vs.  congenial  (sympathique) ....  6, 52 

6     Disengaged ....  26,  54,  81 20 

vs.  emotional ....  5,  31,  56,  66,  82 

E     Mode:  eccentric XXXV 

or  conventional v,  72 

1  "  Barbarisms  "  in  style 25 

a     Latin. .  .  .37 

b    German ....  82 

c     Semitic 53 

2  Pseudo-archaic  style 26 

3  Social  aberrations 

a     Vulgarity ....  v,  72 

b    Pedantry. .  .  .70 XXXIX   54 

c     Mannerisms . .  . .  xi,  xxn,  xxv,  5, 73 27 

4  "Solecisms"  in  style XXIV 

a     Mixed  metaphors 28 

b     Confusion  of  tenses 28 

c     Violation  of  view  point 28 

d    Bathos 28 

5  "  Improprieties  "  in  style 

a     Mingling  triviality  with  earnest 55,  56      29 

b     Bombast  (5  savors  of  it) 

c    Confusion  of  plane  of  styles 30 

Low 57 

Mean. .  .  .58 

High. .  .  .59,64 XXXII,  XLII 


IV     MOVEMENT 

A    Sequence XIX 

1  Consecutiveness XX 

a     Random  association .  .  .  vn,  20, 22, 29, 3 1 , 50 

b    Logical  coherence ....  xn,  i , XV  58 

c     Question  and  answer ....  3, 13, 73 

2  Suspense 

a     By  curiosity . .  .  .49,  59,  61,  63 

b    By  anticipation ....  74 

3  Reflex  movement ....  7,  8, 9,  24,  39 

B     Rate 

i     Fast  (cf.  V  A  i  c  elan) ....  15  (medium:  57) 


12 

Precepts        Model 

to  slow..  ..xvi,  ii,  27,34,37,38,67,80....  59 

2  Varying.  .  .  .  14, 42,  74,  77 60 

to  even xvi,  xxi,  i,  7,  12,  53,  58 61 

3  Abrupt  change 5,  63,  73 

to  gradual ....  9 62 

C     Rhythm 

1  Style  coupe  (detached  sentences) . .  .  .  vi,  XLI, 

14,  19,  26,  40,  74,  81 XXIX  63 

2  Style  periodique .... 28,  43,  59,  62 XXIX  64 

3  Long  and  short ...  .22,  25,  36,  60,  77,  83  ....  65 

4  Jerky  movement ....  vn,  55,  78 66 

5  Ponderous ....  xn,  37,  54,  61,  70 

to  tripping .  .  .  .49,  52 


V    TENOR 

A    As  expressing  the  writer 

i     Intellectually 

a     Purposiveness . .  . .  x,  xxi,  xxn XIII,  XX 

Order....  i,  8,  58,  59 

vs.  casualness ...  .23,  50 

Reflexion ....  xvi,  9,  13,  21,  28,  84 21         67 

vs.  spontaneity . .  . .  vi,  10,  31,  43,  72,  74  .  .XXXI 

b    Acumen 

Penetration ...  .3,  13,  19,  57,  75,  85 68 

Observation ....  6,  24,  33,  77 69 

c     Temperament XXXVIII 

Nervous ....  2,  40,  49 

vs.  sluggish ....  xxxiv,  i 

Temperateness ....  27,  63 

vs.  heat  (chaleur) ....  xxxi,  43 69 

coldness . .  . .  I 

Deliberateness . .  . .  v,  ix,  xn,  12, 13,37,58,68  70 

vs.  elan . .  (dash) . .  vi,  xxxi,  25,  64,  66,  74 

d    Mood 

Sombre . .  . .  11, 12,  80  (grave  59,  67,  75) .... 

to  gay..  ..vi,  49,  55 

Perplexed 7* 

to  confident ....  2, 15,  83 

Fanciful ....  5,  52,  54,  57,  62,  70,  81, 84 


13 

Precepts       Model        Sugg. 

to  matter-of-fact .  .  . .  v,  ix,  37,  65 72 

Cynical ....  20,  42 73 

to  optimistic ....  23,  52 74 

2     Morally XL 

a     Sincerity 17,  22,  65,  67,  71 75 

vs.  chicane  (trickery) ....  14,  15,  45,  82  .... 

b     Ideality.  ..  .11,  12,22,25, 61,64,85 ?6 

vs.  laissez-faire  (compromise) .  .  .  .  v,  72 

c     Austerity. .  .  .26, 38,  59,  61,  76 

vs.  sensuousness ...  .23,  62,  68,  71,  84 77 

d     Integrity ....  13 

vs.   patchwork . .  . .  vn 33 

B     As  impressing  the  reader 

1  Intelligibility XXX 

a     In  diction :  clear  49 ;  obscure ....  xxv .... 

b    In  structure:  clear  i,  5;  obscure  19 

c     In  texture:    clear  30,  36;  obscure. .  .  .xvi, 

27,35,61 XXXIV 

2  Interest 

a     Novelty        .43,  73,  77,  79 79 

b  Oddity.  .8,9,14,37,43,45,52,54,70,71,82                   80 

c  Personal     v,  15, 16,  27,  51,  62, 65, 72, 74, 78 

d  Wit..  ..vi,  20, 49,  55,63..                                   14         81 

e     Mystery ...  .60,  61,  68,  74 82 

b  Information.  ..  .1,  xii,  i,  21,  24,  32,  50,  69.                   83 

3  Esteem 

a  Elegance  ....  xvi,  4,  25,  26,  27,  34,  62,  63, 

68,71,77,81 84 

b     Cogency ....  x,  2,  13,  15,  18,  19,  37,  40,  41, 

48,58,65,66,75 

c     Elevation  (sublimity) ...  .5,  12,  22,  25,   j  XXXVII  ~ 
47,  53,  59,  60,  61,  64,  67,  74,  76 {  XLII 

4  Appeal 

a     Picturesqueness .  .  .  .6,  23,  31,  33,  42,  57, 

63,64,68,77,84 

b     Humor.  .  .  .6,  44,  55,  57,  63,  70 

c     Grace. .  .  .46,  49,  68,  71,  81,  84 

d     Pathos. .  .  .60,  61,  66,  67,  79,  80 

e     Cadence ....  xxxvn,  61, 62,  64,  68,  84 24 

f     Naivete.  .  .  .10,  37,  46,  71,  72 


SYMBOLS  DESIGNATING  FAULTS. 

(References  to  the  SYLLABUS,  pp.  5—13,  indicate  where  the  student 
should  seek  instruction  to  remedy  his  deficiency.} 

barb,  barbarism  (word  not  in  good  use). 

cap.  capitalize  this  letter,  word,  or  phrase. 

coh.  coherence  lacking.     [IB  2]. 

con.  connective  missing  or  inappropriate,     [pp.  131-4]. 

cst.  construction  incorrect. 

#  delete  (strike  it  out). 

dif.  diffuse  (too  many  words  for  the  thought).     [Ill  A]. 

em.  emphasis  lacking  or  misplaced.     [Ill  B]. 

gr.  grammar  not  correct. 

imp.  impropriety  (correct  word  with  inappropriate  meaning). 

ital.  italicize  this  (by  underlining  once) . 

1.  c.  lower  case  (remove  the  capitals). 

1f  paragraph  division  needed  here.     [IB  i]. 

p.  punctuation  lacking  or  incorrect. 

pi.  plural  needed  here. 

prop,  proportion  neglected  or  ill  judged.     [I  A  i  b]. 

quots.  quotation  marks  should  be  supplied. 

ref .  reference  (source  or  authority  should  be  stated) . 

sent,  sentences  lack  variety  or  flexibility,     [pp.  123-30]. 

seq.  sequence   (thoughts  or  words  do  not  flow  easily).    [IV  A]. 

sp.  spelling  incorrect. 

stet.  pay  no  attention  to  the  correction. 

str.  structure  lacking  or  not  clearly  marked.     [I  A  i  b]. 

t.  tense  wrong. 

tr.  transpose  (change  the  order). 

u.  unity  violated  here.     [I  A  i  a]. 

voc.  vocabulary  (words  not  suited  to  the  general  tone) .     [II  C] . 

X  a  blunder  obvious  to  the  student. 


PRECEPTS. 

(Numbers  in  the  text  refer  to  explanatory  NOTES,  pp.  102-5; 
those  after  an  author's  name  refer  to  the  HISTORICAL  REVIEW,  p.  134; 
those  in  footnotes  refer  to  the  SYLLABUS,^.  5-13.  Thus  one  may 
find  other  extracts  from  the  same  author  or  other  examples  of  the 
same  trait  of  style.) 

I.  The  word   [style]... is  derived  from  the  instrument  stilus 
(wrongly  spelled  stylus),  of  metal,  wood  or  ivory,  by  means  of 
which,  in  classic  times,  letters  and  words  were  imprinted  upon 
waxen  tablets.     By  the  transition  of  thought  known  as  metonymy 
the  word  has  been  transferred  from  the  object  which  makes  the 
impression  to  the  sentences  which  are  impressed  by  it,  and  a 
mechanical  observation  has  become  an  intellectual  conception. 
To  "turn  the  stylus"  was  to  correct  what  had  been  written  by 
the  sharp  end  of  the  tool,  by  a  judicious  application  of  the  blunt 
end,  and  this  resffi)n3s  to  that  discipline  and  self-criticism  upon 
which  literary  excellence  depends.     The  energy  of  a  deliberate 
writer  would  make  a  firm  and  full  impression  when  he  wielded 
the  stylus.     A  scribe  of  rapid  and  fugitive  habit  would  press  more 
irregularly  and  produce  a  less  consistent  text.     The  varieties  of 
writing   induced   by   these   differences   of   temperament   would 
reveal  the  nature  of  the  writer,  yet  they  would  be  attributed, 
and  with  justice,  to  the  implement  which  immediately  produced 
them.     Thus  it  would  be  natural  for  any  one  who  examined 
several  tablets  of  wax  to  say,  "The  writers  of  these  inscriptions 
are  revealed  by  their  stylus." 

GOSSE  (49),  Encyc.  Brit.,  s.  v.  style. 

II.  The  well-written  works  are  the  only  ones  that  will  go  down 
to  posterity :  the  amount  of  knowledge  in  a  book,  the  peculiarity 
of  the  facts,  the  novelty  even  of  the  discoveries,  are  not  sure 
warrants  of  immortality.     If  the  works  that  contain  these  are 

I.    Abstract  (III  A),  literal  (III  C) ,  impersonal  (III  D),  informa- 
tive (V  B).     Example  of  "quaestio  finita":  see  4. 


i6 

concerned  with  only  minor  objects;  if  they  are  written  without 
taste,  without  nobility,  without  inspiration,  they  will  perish; 
since  the  knowledge,  facts,  and  discoveries,  being  easily  detached, 
are  passed  on  to  others,  and  even  gain  intrinsically  when  appro- 
priated by  more  gifted  hands. 

BUFFON  (translation). 

III.  Nearly  always  the  things  a  writer  says  are  less  striking  than 
the  way  he  puts  them;  for  men  in  general  have  much  the  same 

(ideas  about  the  matters  that  form  the  stock  in  trade  of  all.  It 
is  the  expression,  the  style,  that  makes  all  the  difference.  In  the 
majority  of  our  plays  their  tissue  is  made  up  of  declarations  of 
love,  cases  of  jealousy,  estrangements,  reconciliations,  and  the 
like;  this  is  true  above  all  of  Racine's,  for  his  are  built  upon  just 
such  slender  framework.  Yet  how  few  geniuses  have  been  suc- 
cessful in  reproducing  these  tints  which  every  writer  has  tried  in 
vain!  True  style  gives  individuality  to  the  commonest  things, 
strength  to  the  feeblest,  dignity  to  the  simplest. 

VOLTAIRE  (translation) . 

IV.  [To  communicate  absolute  facts]  neither  readily  admits, 
nor  much  needs,  any  graces  in  the  mode  of  communication;  the 
matter  transcends  and  oppresses  the  manner.     The  matter  tells 
without  any  manner  at  all.     But  he  who  has  to  treat  a  vague 
question,  such  as  Cicero  calls  a  qucestio  infinita,  where  everything 
is  to  be  finished  out  of  his  own  peculiar  feelings,  or  his  own  way 
of  viewing  things  (in  contradistinction  to  a  qucestio  finita,  where 
determinate  data  from  without  already  furnish  the  main  mate- 
rials), soon  finds  that  the  manner  of  treating  it  not  only  tran- 
scends the  matter,  but  very  often,  and  in  a  very  great  proportion, 
is  the  matter. 

DEQUINCEY  (29) 
j/ 

II.  The  style  of  translated  passages,  being  left  without  com- 
ment, offers  a  field  for  class  discussion. 

III.  Style  here  seems  intended  to  include  point-of-view,  accord- 
ing to  which  distinctive  differences  of  thought  arise. 

IV.  Learned  words  (II  B),  parallel  construction  (IB  2). 


17 

V.  Stylp  JQ  i^  rlrnnn  oiLtjiought&;   and  let  them  be  ever  so  just, 
if  your  style  is  homely,  coarse,  and  vulgar,  they  will  appear  to  as 
much  disadvantage,  and  be  as  ill  received  as  your  person,  though 
ever  so  well  proportioned,  would,  if  dressed  in  rags,  dirt,  and 
tatters.     It  is  not  every  understanding  that  can  judge  of  matter; 
but  every  ear  can  and  does  judge  more  or  less  of  style;  and  were 
I  either  to  speak  or  write  to  the  public,  I  should  prefer  moderate 
matter,  adorned  with  all  the  beauties  and  elegancies  of  style, 
to  the  strongest  matter  in  the  world,  ill- worded  and  ill-delivered 
....  I  confess  (and  I  believe  most  people  are  of  my  mind)  that 
if  a  speaker  should  ungracefully  mutter  or  stammer  out  to  me  the 
sense  of  an  angel,  deformed  by  barbarisms  and  solecisms,  or 
larded  with  vulgarisms,  he  should  never  speak  to  me  a  second 
time,  if  I  could  help  it. 

CHESTERFIELD  (16),  Letters  to  his  Son. 

VI.  Everyone  knows  how  futile  for  any  actual  result  are  those 
elaborate  disquisitions  on  Style  which  some  of  the  most  con- 
summate masters  have  amused  themselves  in  compiling,  but 
which  serve  at  best  to  show  how  quite  hackneyed  truisms  can 
be  graced  by  an  almost  miraculous  neatness  of  phrase.     It  is 
in  vain  to  enjoin  on  us  "propriety,"  "justness  of  expression," 
"suitability  of  our  language  to  the  subject  we  treat,"  and  all 
the  commonplaces  which  the  schools  of  Addison  and  of  John- 
son in  the  last  century  promulgated  as  canons  of  good  style. 
"Proper  words  in  proper  places,"  says  Swift,  "make  the  true 
definition  of  a  style."     "Each  phrase  in  its  right  place,"  says 
Voltaire.     Well!     Swift  and  Voltaire  knew  how  to  do  this  with 
supreme  skill;   but  it  does  not  help  us,  if  they  cannot  teach 

V.  Direct  (III  C)  and  outspoken  (III  D),  deliberate  and  matter- 
of-fact   (V  A),  interest  from   self -concern   (V  B),  tendency  to 
compromise  (V  A).     Example  of  balance  (IB  2).     The  choice 
of  imaginery  and  turn  of  thought  savor  of  vulgarity  (III  E  3). 
As  to  the  opinion,  compare  No.  XXXIII. 

VI.  Personal   (HID)   and  playful   (V  A),  showing  wit   (V  B) 
with  spontaneity  and  elan  (V  A) .     Emphasis  by  short  sentences 
and  challenge   (III  B).     Example  of  style  coupe   (IV  C)   and 
allusive  texture  (III  C). 


iS 

their  art.  How  are  we  to  know  what  is  the  proper  word? 
How  are  we  to  find  the  right  place?  And  even  a  greater  than 
Swift  or  Voltaire  is  not  much  more  practical  as  a  teacher. 
"Suit  the  action  to  the  word,  and  the  word  to  the  action," 
says  Hamlet.  "Be  not  too  tame  neither.  Let  your  own  dis- 
cretion be  your  tutor."  Can  you  trust  your  own  discretion? 
Have  undergraduates  this  discretion?  And  how  could  I,  in 
presence  of  your  College  authority,  suggest  that  you  should 
have  no  tutor  but  your  own  discretion? 

All  this  is  as  if  a  music-master  were  to  say  to  a  pupil,  Sing 
always  in  tune  and  with  the  right  intonation,  and  whatever 
you  do,  produce  your  voice  in  the  proper  way!  Or,  to  make 
myself  more  intelligible  to  you  here,  it  is  as  if  W.  G.  Grace 
were  to  tell  you,  Play  a  "yorker"  in  the  right  way,  and  place 
the  ball  in  the  proper  spot  with  reference  to  the  field ! 

HARRISON  (48),  Address  at  Oxford. 

VII.  For  a  man  to  write  well,  there  are  required  three  neces- 
saries —  to  read  the  best  authors,  observe  the  best  speakers,  and 
much  exercise  of  his  own  style.  In  style,  to  consider  what  ought 
to  be  written,  and  after  what  manner,  he  must  first  think  and 
excogitate  his  matter,  then  choose  his  words,  and  examine  the 
weight  of  either.  Then  take  care,  in  placing  and  ranking  both 
matter  and  words,  that  the  composition  be  comely;  and  to  do 
this  with  diligence  and  often.  No  matter  how  slow  the  style  be 
at  first,  so  it  be  labored  and  accurate;  seek  the  best,  and  be  not 
glad  of  the  forward  conceits,  or  first  words,  that  offer  themselves 
to  us;  but  judge  of  what  we  invent,  and  order  what  we  approve. 
Repeat  often  what  we  have  formerly  written;  which  beside  that 
it  helps  the  consequence,  and  makes  the  juncture  better,  it 
quickens  the  heat  of  imagination,  that  often  cools  in  the  time  of 
setting  down,  and  gives  it  new  strength,  as  if  it  grew  lustier  by 
the  going  back.  As  we  see  in  the  contention  of  leaping,  they 
jump  farthest  that  fetch  their  race  largest;  or,  as  in  throwing  a 

VII.  Acumen  with  patchwork  (V  A),  rhythm  jerky  (IV  C)  and 
sequence  random  (IV  A),  texture  personal  (III  D)  and  figurative 
(III  C). 


19 

dart  or  javelin,  we  force  back  our  arms  to  make  our  loose  the 
stronger.  Yet,  if  we  have  a  fair  gale  of  wind,  I  forbid  not  the 
steering  out  of  our  sail,  so  the  favor  of  the  gale  deceive  us  not. 
For  all  that  we  invent  doth  please  us  in  the  conception  of  birth, 
else  we  would  never  set  it  down.  But  the  safest  is  to  return  to 
our  judgment,  and  handle  over  again  those  things  the  easiness 
of  which  might  make  them  justly  suspected.  So  did  the  best 
writers  in  their  beginnings;  they  imposed  upon  themselves  care 
and  industry;  they  did  nothing  rashly;  they  obtained  first  to 
write  well,  and  then  custom  made  it  easy  and  a  habit.  By  little 
and  little  their  matter  showed  itself  to  them  more  plentifully; 
their  words  answered,  their  composition  followed;  and  all,  as  in  a 
well-ordered  family,  presented  itself  in  the  place.  So  that  the 
sum  of  all  is,  ready  writing  makes  not  good  writing,  but  good 
writing  brings  on  ready  writing. 

JONSON  (7),  Timber. 

VIII.  In  youth,  I  wish  to  see  luxuriancy  of  fancy.     Much  of  it 
will  be  diminished  by  years;  much  will  be  corrected  by  ripening 
judgment;   some  of  it,  by  the  mere  practice  of  composition,  will 
be  worn  away.     Let  there  be  only  sufficient  matter,  at  first,  that 
can  bear  some  pruning  and  lopping  off.     At  this  time  of  life,  let 
genius  be  bold  and  inventive,  and  pride  itself  in  its  efforts,  though 
these  should  not,  as  yet,  be  correct.     Luxuriancy  can  easily  be 
cured;  but  for  barrenness  there  is  no  remedy. 

QUINTILIAN  (translation). 

IX.  About  this  time  I  met  with  an  odd  volume  of  the  Spectator. 
It  was  the  third.     I  had  never  before  seen  any  of  them.     I  bought 
it,  read  it  over  and  over,  and  was  much  delighted  with  it.     I 
thought  the  writing  excellent,  and  wished,  if  possible,  to  imitate 
it.     With  this  view  I  took  some  of  the  papers,  and,  making  short 
hints  of  the  sentiment  in  each  sentence,  laid  them  by  a  few  days, 
and  then,  without  looking  at  the  book,  try'd  to  compleat  the 

IX.  Outspoken  (III  D),  deliberate  and  matter-of-fact  (V  A). 
Texture  patent  (III  A).  Example  of  development  by  sequence 
of  events  (I  A  i  b). 


20 

papers  again,  by  expressing  each  hinted  sentiment  at  length,  and 
as  fully  as  it  had  been  expressed  before,  in  any  suitable  words  that 
should  come  to  hand.  Then  I  compared  my  Spectator  with  the 
original,  discovered  some  of  my  faults,  and  corrected  them.  But 
I  found  I  wanted  a  stock  of  words,  or  a  readiness  in  recollecting 
and  using  them,  which  I  thought  I  should  have  acquired  before 
that  time  if  I  had  gone  on  making  verses;  since  the  continual 
occasion  for  words  of  the  same  import,  but  of  different  length, 
to  suit  the  measure,  or  of  different  sound  for  the  rhyme,  would 
have  laid  me  under  a  constant  necessity  of  searching  for  variety, 
and  also  have  tended  to  fix  that  variety  in  my  mind,  and  make 
me  master  of  it.  Therefore  I  took  some  of  the  tales  and  turned 
them  into  verse;  and,  after  a  time,  when  I  had  pretty  well 
forgotten  the  prose,  turned  them  back  again.  I  also  sometimes 
jumbled  my  collections  of  hints  into  confusion,  and  after  some 
weeks  endeavored  to  reduce  them  into  the  best  order,  before  I 
began  to  form  the  full  sentences  and  compleat  the  paper.  This 
was  to  teach  me  method  in  the  arrangement  of  thoughts.  By 
comparing  my  work  afterwards  with  the  original,  I  discovered 
many  faults  and  amended  them;  but  I  sometimes  had  the  pleas- 
ure of  fancying  that,  in  certain  particulars  of  small  import,  I  had 
been  lucky  enough  to  improve  the  method  or  the  language,  and 
this  encouraged  me  to  think  I  might  possibly  in  time  come  to  be 
a  tolerable  English  writer. 

FRANKLIN  (17),  Autobiography. 

X.  I  always  kept  two  books  in  my  pocket,  one  to  read,  one  to 
write  in.  As  I  walked,  my  mind  was  busy  fitting  what  I  saw  with 
appropriate  words;  when  I  sat  by  the  roadside,  I  would  either 
read,  or  a  pencil  and  a  penny  version-book  would  be  in  my  hand, 
to  note  down  the  features  of  the  scene  or  commemorate  some 
halting  stanzas ....  Description  was  the  principal  field  of  my 
exercise ....  But  I  worked  in  other  ways  also ;  often  accompanied 
my  walks  with  dramatic  dialogues,  in  which  I  played  many  parts; 

X.  Natural  though  allusive  (III  C),  informal  (III  D)  and 
purposive  (V  A),  gaining  esteem  through  cogency  (V  B).  Tex- 
ture simple  and  patent  (III  A). 


21 

and  often  exercised  myself  in  writing  down  conversations  from 
memory. 

This  was  all  excellent,  no  doubt;  so  were  the  diaries  I  some- 
times tried  to  keep ...  it  had  one  grave  defect ;  for  it  set  me  no- 
standard  of  achievement.  So  that  there  was  perhaps  more 
profit,  as  there. was  certainly  more  effort,  in  my  secret  labors  at 
home.  Whenever  I  read  a  book  or  a  passage  that  particularly 
pleased  me,  in  which  a  thing  was  said  or  an  effect  rendered  with 
propriety,  in  which  there  was  either  some  conspicuous  force  or 
some  happy  distinction  in  the  style,  I  must  sit  down  at  once  and 
set  myself  to  ape  that  quality.  I  was  unsuccessful,  and  I  knew 
it;  and  tried  again,  and  was  again  unsuccessful  and  always 
unsuccessful ;  but  at  least  in  these  vain  bouts,  I  got  some  practice 
in  rhythm,  in  harmony,  in  construction  and  co-ordination  of  parts. 
I  have  thus  played  the  sedulous  ape  to  Hazlitt,  to  Lamb,  to 
Wordsworth,  to  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  to  Defoe,  to  Hawthorne, 
to  Montaigne,  to  Baudelaire  and  to  Obermann.  I  remember  one 
of  these  monkey  tricks,  which  was  called  The  Vanity  of  Morals .  .  . 
the  first  part  was  written ...  no  less  than  three  times :  first  in  the 
manner  of  Hazlitt,  second  in  the  manner  of  Ruskin,  who  had  cast 
on  me  a  passing  spell,  and  third,  in  a  laborious  pasticcio 1  of  Sir 
Thomas  Browne .... 

That,  like  it  or  not,  is  the  way  to  learn  to  write;  whether  I 
have  profited  or  not,  that  is  the  way.  It  was  so  Keats  learned, 
and  there  never  was  a  finer  temperament  for  literature  than 
Keats's;  it  was  so,  if  we  could  trace  it  out,  that  all  men  have 
learned .  .  .  Perhaps  I  hear  some  one  cry  out.  But  this  is  not  the 
way  to  be  original!  It  is  not;  nor  is  there  any  way  but  to  be 
born  so.  .  .  .There  can  be  nothing  more  original  than  Montaigne, 
neither  could  any  be  more  unlike  Cicero;  yet  no  craftsman  can 
fail  to  see  how  much  the  one  must  have  tried  in  his  time  to 
imitate  the  other.  Burns  is  the  very  type  of  a  prime  force  in 
letters;  he  was  of  all  men  the  most  imitative.  Shakespeare 
himself,  the  imperial,  proceeds  directly  from  a  school ....  Before 
he  can  tell  what  cadences  he  truly  prefers,  the  student  should 
have  tried  all  that  are  possible;  before  he  can  choose  and  pre- 
serve a  fitting  key  of  words,  he  should  long  have  practised  the 
literary  scales. 

STEVENSON  (46),  A  College  Magazine,  L 


22 

XL  Now  I  will  attempt  to  show  how  this  process  of  improve- 
ment is  effected,  and  what  is  its  limit.  I  conceive  then  that 
these  gifted  writers  act  upon  the  spoken  and  written  language 
by  means  of  the  particular  schools  which  form  about  them  re- 
spectively. Their  style,  using  the  word  in  a  large  sense,  forcibly 
arrests  the  reader,  and  draws  him  on  to  imitate  it,  by  virtue  of 
what  is  excellent  in  it,  in  spite  of  such  defects  as,  in  common  with 
all  human  works,  it  may  contain.  I  suppose  all  of  us  will  recog- 
nize this  fascination.  For  myself  when  I  was  fourteen  or  fifteen, 
I  imitated  Addison;  when  I  was  seventeen,  I  wrote  in  the  style 
of  Johnson ;  about  the  same  time  I  fell  in  with  the  twelfth  volume 
of  Gibbon,  and  my  ears  rang  with  the  cadence  of  his  sentences, 
.and  I  dreamed  of  it  for  a  night  or  two.  Then  I  began  to  make  an 
analysis  of  Thucydides  in  Gibbon's  style.  In  like  manner,  most 
Oxford  undergraduates,  forty  years  ago,  when  they  would  write 
poetry,  adopted  the  versification  of  Pope  Darwin,  and  the 
Pleasures  of  Hope,  which  had  been  made  popular  by  Heber  and 
Milman.  The  literary  schools,  indeed,  which  I  am  speaking  of, 
as  resulting  from  the  attractions  of  some  original,  or  at  least 
novel  artist,  consist  for  the  most  part  of  mannerists,  none  of 
whom  rise  much  above  mediocrity;  but  they  are  not  the  less 
serviceable  as  channels,  by  means  of  which  the  achievements  of 
genius  may  be  incorporated  into  the  language  itself,  or  become 
the  common  property  of  the  nation.  Henceforth,  the  most 
ordinary  composer,  the  very  student  in  the  lecture-room,  is  able 
to  write  with  a  precision,  a  grace,  or  a  copiousness,  as  the  case 
may  be,  unknown  before  the  date  of  the  authors  whom  he  imitates. 
NEWMAN  (34),  University  Subjects,  III,  2. 

XII.  It  was  apparently  his  [Addison's]  principal  endeavor  to 
avoid  all  harshness  and  severity  of  diction ;  he  is  therefore  some- 
times verbose  in  his  transitions  and  connections,  and  sometimes 

XL  Qualifications  and  apposition,  as  in  the  third  sentence  and 
last  two,  are  almost  a  mannerism  in  Newman  and  Pater. 
XII.  Antithetical  style  (III  B)  of  abstract  texture  (III  A)  with 
logical  sequence  (IV  A)  and  heavy  rhythm  (IV  C).  It  is  delib- 
erate (V  A)  and  highly  informative  (V  B).  Coherence  (I  B  2) 
by  pronoun  and  balance. 


23 

descends  too  much  to  the  language  of  conversation;  yet  if  his 
language  had  been  less  idiomatical,  it  might  have  lost  somewhat 
of  its  genuine  Anglicism.  What  he  attempted,  he  performed; 
he  is  never  feeble,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  be  energetic;  he  is  never 
rapid,  and  he  never  stagnates.  His  sentences  have  neither 
studied  amplitude,  nor  affected  brevity:  his  periods,  though  not 
diligently  rounded,  are  voluble  and  easy.  Whoever  wishes  to 
attain  an  English  style,  familiar  but  not  coarse,  and  elegant  but 
not  ostentatious,  must  give  his  days  and  nights  to  the  volumes 
of  Addison. 

JOHNSON  (18),  Life  of  Addison,  last  paragraph. 

XIII.  Many  or  most  writers  are  elaborate;   and  those  certainly 
not  the  least  whose  style  is  farthest  removed  from  ornament, 
being  simple  and  natural,  or  vehement,  or  severely  business-like 
and  practical.     Who  so  energetic  and  manly  as  Demosthenes? 
yet  he  is  said  to  have  transcribed  Thucydides  many  times  over 
in  the  formation  of  his  style.     Who  so  gracefully  natural  as 
Herodotus?  yet  his  very  dialect  is  not  his  own,  but  chosen  for 
the  sake  of  the  perfection  of  his  narrative.     Who  exhibits  such 
happy  negligence  as  our  own  Addison?  yet  artistic  fastidiousness 
was  so  notorious  in  his  instance  that  the  report  has  got  abroad, 
truly  or  not,  that  he  was  too  late  in  his  issue  of  an  important 
state  paper,  from  his  habit  of  revision  and  recomposition.     Such 
great  authors  were  working  by  a  model  which  was  before  the  eyes 
of  their  intellect,  and  they  were  labouring  to  say  what  they  had 
to  say,  in  such  a  way  as  would  most  exactly  and  suitably  express 
it.     It  is  not  wonderful  that  other  authors,  whose  style  is  not 
simple,  should  be  instances  of  a  similar  literary  diligence.     Virgil 
wished  his  Aeneid  to  be  burned,  elaborate  as  is  its  composition, 
because  he  felt  it  needed  more  labour  still,  in  order  to  make  it 
perfect. 

NEWMAN  (34),  Literature. 

XIV.  Few  write  in  the  way  in  which  an  architect  builds;   who, 
before  he  sets  to  work,  sketches  out  his  plan,  and  thinks  it  over 

XIII.  Example  of  emphasis  by  rhetorical  questions  (III  B). 
Clear  in  its  alternation  of  idea  words  and  relation  words  (III  A). 


\) 


24 

down  to  its  smallest  details.  Nay,  most  people  write  only  as 
though  they  were  playing  dominoes,  and  as  in  this  game  the 
pieces  are  arranged  half  by  design,  half  by  chance,  so  it  is  with 
the  sequence  and  connection  of  their  sentences.  They  only  just 
have  an  idea  of  what  the  general  shape  of  their  work  will  be,  and 
of  the  aim  they  set  before  themselves.  Many  are  ignorant  even 
of  this,  and  write  as  the  coral-insects  build;  period  joins  to  period, 
and  Lord  knows  what  the  author  means. 

SCHOPENHAUER  (translation). 

XV.  The  writer  must  first  form  an ....  order  where  only  primary 
aspects  and  fundamental  ideas  shall  enter ....  This  plan,  though 
not  the  resultant  style,  is  nevertheless  its  basis,  supporting  it, 
directing   it,   regulating   its   movement,   subjecting   it   to   law. 
Without  that  basis  the  best  of  writers  will  wander;    his  pen 
running  on  unguided  will  form  haphazard,  irregular  strokes  and 
incongruous  figures.     However  brilliant  the  colors  he  employs, 
whatever  the  beauties  of  detail  he  introduces,  since  the  ensemble 
jars  or  else  makes  no  adequate  impression,  the  work  will  not 
really  be  a  construction;.  .  .Here  is  the  reason  why  those  who 
write  as  they  speak,  though  they  may  speak  excellently,  write 
badly;    that  those  who  abandon  themselves  to  the  first  flashes 
of  their  imagination  assume  a  tone  which  they  cannot  sustain; 
that  those  who  are  in  fear  of  losing  their  isolated  and  fugitive 
thoughts  and  who  at  separate  times  write  in  detached  fragments, 
cannot  unite  these  save  by  forced  transitions;   that,  in  a  word, 
there  are  so  many  works  made  up  by  assemblage  of  pieces,  and 
so  few  cast  in  a  single  mould. 

BUFFON  (translation), 

XVI.  Of  these  we  may  distinguish  two  great  classes:  those  arts, 
like  sculpture,  painting,  acting,  which  are  representative,  or,  as 

XVI.  Texture  abstract  with  considerable  implication  (III  A) 
resulting  in  slower  intelligibility  (V  B)  because  of  ornateness 
(III  C).  Movement  even  and  slow  (IV  B).  Purposive  (V  A) 
with  development  by  tracing  similarity  (I  A  i  b),  gaining 
.  esteem  through  elegance  (VB).  Test  the  application  to  each 
art :  only  so  will  the  full  force  be  clear. 


25 

used  to  be  said  very  clumsily,  imitative;  and  those,  like  archi- 
tecture, music,  and  the  dance,  which  are  self-sufficient,  and  merely 
presentative^  Each  class,  in  right  of  this  distinction,  obeys 
principles  apart;  yet  both  may  claim  a  common  ground  of 
existence,  and  it  may  be  said  with  sufficient  justice  that  the 
motive  and  end  of  any  art  whatever  is  to  make  a  pattern;  a 
pattern,  it  may  be,  of  colors,  of  sounds,  of  changing  attitudes, 
geometrical  figures,  or  imitative  lines;  but  still  a  pattern.  That 
is  the  plane  on  which  these  sisters  meet;  it  is  by  this  that  they 
are  arts;  and  if  it  be  well  they  should  at  times  forget  this  childish 
origin,  addressing  their  intelligence  to  virile  tasks,  and  performing 
unconsciously  that  necessary  function  of  their  life,  to  make  a 
pattern,  it  is  still  imperative  that  the  pattern  shall  be  made. 

STEVENSON  (46),  Technical  Elements  of  Style. 

XVII.  Style  is  simply  the  order  and  movement  one  gives  to 
one's  thoughts.     If  these  are  connected  closely,  and  rigorously 
compressed,  the  style  will  be  firm,  nervous  [i.  e.  having  sinews], 
and  concise.     If  they  are  allowed  to  follow  one  another  loosely 
and  merely  at  the  lead  of  the  diction,  however  choice  this  be,  the 
style  will  be  diffuse,  nerveless,  and  languid. 

BUFFON  (translation). 

XVIII.  It  is  a  good  rule  for  a  young  writer  to  avoid  more  than 
twenty  or  thirty  words  without  a  full  stop,  and  not  to  put  more 
than  two  commas  in  each  sentence,  so  that  its  clauses  should 
not  exceed  three.     This,  of  course,  only  in  practice.     There  is 
no  positive  law.     A  fine  writer  can  easily  place  in  a  sentence 
one  hundred  words,  and  five  or  six  minor  clauses  with  their 
proper  commas  and  colons.     Ruskin  was  wont  to  toss  off  two 
or  three  hundred  words  and  five-and-twenty  commas  without  a 

XVIII.  The  orator,  Edward  Everett,  used  sentences  of  a 
length  rivalling  Ruskin's.  Harrison's  objection  —  observe  —  is  to 
the  loose  style  (See  SENTENCES,  p.  123) ;  his  justification,  that  be- 
ginners rarely  have  thoughts  of  a  complexity  demanding  long 
sentences.  The  " young  writer",  instead  of  chopping  up  his  sen- 
tences, should  master  clause-reduction. 


26 

pause.  But  even  in  the  hand  of  such  a  magician  this  ends  in 
failure,  and  is  really  grotesque  in  effect,  for  no  such  sentence  can 
be  spoken  aloud.  A  beginner  can  seldom  manage  more  than 
twenty -five  words  in  one  sentence  with  perfect  ease.  Nearly  all 
young  writers,  just  as  men  did  in  the  early  ages  of  prose  composi- 
tion, drift  into  ragged,  preposterous,  inorganic  sentences,  without 
beginning,  middle,  or  end,  which  they  ought  to  break  into  two  or 
three. 

HARRISON  (48),  Address  at  Oxford. 

XIX.  You  cannot  make  an  impression  on  your  reader's  mind, 
or  even  on  his  feelings,  but  by  continuity  of  the  thread,  by 
harmonious  interdependence  of  the  ideas,  by  a  successive  develop- 
ment, a  sustained  gradation,  a  uniform  movement,  which  every 
interruption  enfeebles  or  destroys. 

BUFFON  (translation). 

XX.  It  is  for  want  of  plan,  for  want  of  sufficient  preliminary 
reflection  on  his  subject,  that  a  man  of  intelligence  finds  himself 
embarrassed  with  uncertainty  at  what  point  to  begin  writing. 
Ideas  come  to  him  from  many  directions  at  a  time;    and  since 
he  has  neither  compared  nor  subordinated  them,  nothing  de- 
termines him  to  prefer  one  set  to  another;    hence  he  remains 
perplexed.     When,  however,  he  has  made  a  plan,  when  he  has 
collected  and  put  in  order  all  the  essential  thoughts  on  his  subject, 
he  recognizes  without  difficulty  the  instant  when  he  ought  to  take 
up  his  pen;    he  is  aware  of  the  critical  point  when  his  mind  is 
ready  to  bring  forth;  it  is  urgent  with  him  to  come  to  the  birth; 
nay,  he  has  now  only  pleasure  in  writing:   his  ideas  follow  one 
another  easily,  and  the  style  is  natural  and  smooth.     A  certain 
warmth  born  of  that  pleasure  diffuses  itself  throughout,  giving 
life  to  every  phrase;    there  is  a  gradual  increase  of  animation; 
the  tone  grows  elevated;   individual  objects  take  on  color;   and 
a  glow  of  feeling  joins  with  the  light  of  intellect  to  increase  it  and 
carry  it  on,  making  it  spread  from  what  one  is  saying  to  what  one 
is  about  to  say;  and  the  style  becomes  interesting  and  luminous. 

BUFFON  (translation). 


27 

XXI.  A  skillful  literary  artist  has  constructed  a  tale.     If  wise, 
he  has  not  fashioned  his  thoughts  to  accommodate  his  incidents ; 
but  having  conceived  with  deliberate  care  a  certain  unique  or 
single  effect  to  be  wrought  out,  he  then  invents  such  incidents  — 
he  then  combines  such  events  —  as  may  best  aid  him  in  establish- 
ing this  preconceived  effect.     If  his  very  initial  sentence  tend 
not  to  the  outbringing  of  this  effect,  then  he  has  failed  in  his  first 
step.     In  the  whole  composition  there  should  be  no  word  written, 
of  which  the  tendency,  direct  or  indirect,  is  not  to  the  one  pre- 
established  design.     And  by  such  means,  with  such  care  and  skill, 
a  picture  is  at  length  painted  which  leaves  in  the  mind  of  him 
who  contemplates  it  with  a  kindred  art,  a  sense  of  the  fullest 
satisfaction.     The  idea  of  the  tale  has  been  presented  unblem- 
ished, because  undisturbed. 

POE  (36),  Review  of  Hawthorne, 

XXII.  Let  him  choose  a  motive,  whether  of  character  or  passion ; 
carefully  construct  his  plot  so  that  every  incident  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  motive,  and  every  property  employed  shall  bear  to  it 
a  near  relation  of  congruity  or  contrast;  avoid  a  sub-plot,  unless, 
as  sometimes  in  Shakespeare,  the  sub-plot  be  a  reversion  or 
complement  of  the  main  intrigue;    suffer  not  his  style  to  flag 
below  the  level  of  the  argument;   pitch  the  key  of  conversation, 
not  with  any  thought  of  how  men  talk  in  parlours,  but  with 
a  single  eye  to  the  degree  of  passion  he  may  be  called  on  to 
express ;  and  allow  neither  himself  nor  any  character  in  the  course 
of  the  dialogue  to  utter  one  sentence  that  is  not  part  and  parcel 
of  the  business  of  the  story  or  the  discussion  of  the  problem 
involved.  .  .  .As  the  root  of  the  whole  matter,  let  him  bear  in 
mind  that  his  novel  is  not  a  transcript  of  life,  to  be  judged  by 
its  exactitude;   but  a  simplification  of  some  side  or  point  of  life, 
to  stand  or  fall  by  its  significant  simplicity. 

STEVENSON  (46),  Memories  and  Portraits. 

XXI.  Texture  abstract  (III  A),  literal  (III  C),  and  impersonal 
(HID),   with  even  emphasis   (III  B)   and  movement   (IV  B). 
Pairs  slightly  overused  (See  Vices  of  style,  p.  118). 

XXII.  Simplification    and    coherence    through    continuity    of 


28 

XXIII.  [Browne]  though  a  writer  of  great  genius,  first  effectually 
injured  the  literary  taste  of  the  nation  by  his  introduction  of 
learned  words,  merely  because  they  were  learned.     It  would  be 
difficult  to  describe  Browne  adequately;  exuberant  in  concep-_ 
tion  and  conceit,  dignified,  hyperlatinistic,  a  quiet  and  sviblime 
enthusiast;    yet  a  fantast,  a  humorist,  a  brain  with  a  twist; 
egotistic  like  Montaigne,  yet  with  a  feeling  heart  and  an  active 
curiosity,  which,  however,  too  often  degenerates  into  a  hunting 
after  oddities.     In  his   Hydriotaphia,1  and,  indeed,  almost   all 
his  works,  the  entireness  of  his  mental  action  is  very  obser- 
vable;   he  metamorphoses  everything,  be  it  what  it  may,  into 
the    subject    under    consideration.     But    Sir    Thomas    Browne 
with  all  his  faults  had  a  genuine  idiom;   and  it  is  the  existence 
of  an  individual  idiom  in  each,  that  makes  the  principal  writers 
before  the  Restoration  the  great  patterns  or  integers  of  English 
style.     In  them  the  precise  intended  meaning  of  a  word  can 
never  be  mistaken;   whereas  in  the  latter  writers,  as  especially 
in  Pope,  the  use  of  words  is  for  the  most  part  purely  arbitrary, 
so  that  the  context  will  rarely  show  the  true  specific  sense,  but 
only  that  something  of  the  sort  is  designed.     A  perusal  of  the 
authorities  cited  by  Johnson  in  his  dictionary  under  any  leading 
word,  will  give  you  a  lively  sense  of  this  declension  in  etymologi- 
cal truth  of  expression  in  the  writers  after  the  Restoration,  or 
perhaps,  strictly,  after  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 

COLERIDGE  (25). 

XXIV.  [Authors]  sometimes  sacrifice  the  large  effect  of  a  diffu- 
sive light  to  the  small  effect  of  a  brilliant  point.     This  is  a  defect 
of  taste  frequently  noticeable  in  two  very  good  writers,   De- 
Quincey  and  Ruskin,  whose  command  of  expression  is  so  varied 
that  it  tempts  them  into  fioritura l  as  flexibility  of  voice  tempts 
singers  to  sin  against  simplicity.     At  the  close  of  an  eloquent 
passage  DeQuincey  writes :  — 

grammatical  subject.  Excessive  use  of  alternatives  (or,  nor). 
XXIII.  Texture  abstract  and  complex  (III  A).  Example  of 
apparently  random  sequence  (IV  A)  with  a  purposive  drift. 
Declension  is  used  in  a  primary  sense. 


29 

"Gravitation,  again,  that  works  without  holiday  forever,  and 
searches  every  corner  of  the  universe,  what  intellect  can  follow 
it  to  its  fountains?  And  yet,  shyer  than  gravitation,  less  to  be 
counted  than  the  fluxions  of  sun-dials,  stealthier  than  the  growth 
of  a  forest,  are  the  footsteps  of  Christianity  amongst  the  political 
workings  of  man." 

The  association  of  holidays  and  shyness  with  an  idea  so  ab- 
stract as  that  of  gravitation,  the  use  of  the  learned  word  fluxions 
to  express  the  movements  of  the  shadows  on  a  dial,  and  the 
discordant  suggestion  of  stealthiness  applied  to  vegetable  growth 
and  Christianity,  are  so  many  offences  against  simplicity. 

LEWES  (39). 

XXV.  With  Flaubert,  the  search,  the  unwearied  search,  was 
not  for  the  smooth,  or  winsome,  or  forcible  word,  as  such,  as  with 
false  Ciceronians,1  but  quite  simply  and  honestly,  for  the  word's 
adjustment  to  its  meaning.     The  first  condition  of  this  must  be, 
of  course,  to  know  yourself,  to  have  ascertained  your  own  sense 
exactly.     Then,  if  we  suppose  an  artist,  he  says  to  the  reader, — 
I  want  you  to  see  precisely  what  I  see.     Into  the  mind  sensitive 
to  "form,"  a  flood  of  random  sounds,  colors,  incidents,  is  ever 
penetrating  from  the  world  without,  to  become,  by  sympathetic 
selection,  a  part  of  its  very  structure,  and,  in  turn,  the  visible 
vesture  and  expression  of  that  other  world  it  sees  so  steadily 
within,  nay,  already  with  a  partial  conformity  thereto,  to  be 
refined,  enlarged,  corrected,  at  a  hundred  points;   and  it  is  just 
there,  just  at  those  doubtful  points  that  the  function  of  style, 
as  tact  or  taste,  intervenes. 

PATER  (44),  Style. 

XXVI.  The  largest  intellects  are  far  from  being  the  most  exact. 
A  mind  always  intent  on  correctness  is  apt  to  be  dissipated  in 
trifles;    but  in  great  affluence  of  thought,  as  in  vast  material 
wealth,  there  must  needs  be  an  occasional  neglect  of  detail. 


XXV.  Mannerism  from  frequent  use  of  apposition  (III  E). 
Smoothness  of  tone  from  repetition  of  letters  (notice  s  and  r). 
Texture  ornate  (III  C)  with  much  implication  (III  A). 


3° 

And  is  it  not  inevitably  so?  Is  it  not  by  risking  nothing,  by 
never  aiming  high,  that  a  writer  of  low  or  middling  powers  keeps 
generally  clear  of  faults  and  secure  of  blame?  whereas  the  loftier 
walks  of  literature  are  by  their  very  loftiness  perilous?  I  am  well 
aware,  again,  that  there  is  a  law  by  which  in  all  human  produc- 
tions the  weak  points  catch  the  eye  first,  by  which  their  faults 
remain  indelibly  stamped  on  the  memory,  while  their  beauties 
quickly  fade  away.  Yet,  though  I  have  myself  noted  not  a  few 
faulty  passages  in  Homer  and  in  other  authors  of  the  highest 
rank,  and  though  I  am  far  from  being  partial  to  their  failings, 
nevertheless  I  would  call  them  not  so  much  wilful  blunders  as 
oversights  which  were  allowed  to  pass  unregarded  through  that 
contempt  of  little  things,  that  "  brave  disorder,"  which  is  natural 
to  an  exalted  genius ;  and  I  still  think  that  the  greater  excellences, 
though  not  everywhere  equally  sustained,  ought  always  to  be 
voted  to  the  first  place  in  literature,  if  for  no  other  reason,  for 
the  mere  grandeur  of  soul  they  evince. 

LONGINUS  (translation). 

XXVII.  The  value  of  concrete  illustration  artfully  used  may  be 
seen  illustrated  in  a  passage  from  Macaulay's  invective  against 
Frederick  the  Great:  "On  the  head  of  Frederick  is  all  the  blood 
which  was  shed  in  a  war  which  raged  during  many  years  and  in 
every  quarter  of  the  globe,  the  blood  of  the  column  at  Fontenoy, 
the  blood  of  the  mountaineers  who  were  slaughtered  at  Culloden. 
The  evils  produced  by  his  wickedness  were  felt  in  lands  where  the 
name  of  Prussia  was  unknown;  and  in  order  that  he  might  rob  a 
neighbor  whom  he  had  promised  to  defend,  black  men  fought  on 
the  coast  of  Coromandel,  and  red  men  scalped  each  other  by  the 
Great  Lakes  of  North  America."  Disregarding  the  justice  or 
injustice  of  the  thought,  note  the  singular  force  and  beauty  of 
this  passage,  delightful  alike  to  ear  and  mind;  and  observe 
how  its  very  elaborateness  has  the  effect  of  the  finest  simplicity, 
because  the  successive  pictures  are  constituents  of  the  general 
thought,  and  by  their  vividness  render  the  conclusion  more 
impressive.  Let  us  suppose  him  to  have  written  with  the  vague 
generality  of  expression  much  patronized  by  dignified  historians, 
and  told  us  that  "Frederick  was  the  cause  of  great  European 


conflicts  extending  over  long  periods;  and  in  consequence  of  his 
political  aggression  hideous  crimes  were  perpetrated  in  the  most 
distant  parts  of  the  globe." 

LEWES  (39). 

XXVIII.  The  ancient  rhetoricians  did  not  give  much  attention 
to  Number  of  Words  as  an  element  of  Style.     Brevity  is  indeed 
commended,  but  incidentally  rather  than  directly.     Quintilian, 
for  example,  devotes  but  a  few  sentences  to  faults  of  this  nature. 
He  speaks  of  tautology,  but  the  word  was  used  by  him,  as  by  the 
ancients  generally,  to  mean  the  repetition  of  the  same  word; 
which  might  be  the  result  of  carelessness  or  intended  for  effect. 
He  names  naKpoXoyla  and  TrXeovaa/jios  (using  the  Greek  words)  as 
separate  ways  of  employing  more  words  than  are  necessary,  but 
draws  no  clear  distinction  between  them.     Quintilian  also  recog- 
nizes diffuseness  as  a  means  of  giving  elegance  or  force  on  suit- 
able occasions;  but  in  Longinus  this  receives  more  notice.     Lon- 
ginus  compares  periphrasis,  when  it  is  not  a  lumbering  expression 
of  a  simple  idea,  but  the  forcible  utterance  of  a  weighty  thought, 
to  the  accompanying  of  a  note  in  music  by  the  notes  of  the  scale 
that  are  in  harmony  with  it.     As  the  musical  note  thus  gains  in 
sweetness  and  force,  so  the  periphrasis  is  a  large  and  harmonious 
reproduction  of  the  main  idea.     We  might  adapt  the  comparison 
to  modern  music  with  still  more  appropriateness,  and  say  that 
as  the  musical  idea  expressed  in  a  melody  gains  in  breadth  and 
impressiveness  when  it  is  harmonised,  so  by  a  forcible  periphrasis 
does  the  bare  form  of  a  thought  gain  in  richness  and  power,  while 
still  remaining  essentially  the  same. 

BAIN,  Eng.  Comp.  &  Rhet.  Pt.  I  (1890)  p.  54. 

XXIX.  With  regard  to  the  length  and  construction  of  sentences, 
the  French  critics  make  a  very  just  distinction  of  style,  into  style 
periodique  and  style  coupe.     The  style  periodique  is  where  the  sen- 
tences are  composed  of  several  members  linked  together,  and 
hanging  upon  one  another;  so  that  the  sense  of  the  whole  is  not 

XXIX.  Neither  style  need  be  personal  as  above.  Note  the  old- 
fashioned  close  punctuation,  due  to  a  pedantic  editor  (Mills). 


32 

brought  out  till' the  close.  This  is  the  most  pompous,  musical, 
and  oratorical  manner  of  composing;  as  in  the  following  sentence 
of  Sir  William  Temple:  'If  you  look  about  you,  and  consider 
the  lives  of  others  as  well  as  your  own;  if  you  think  how  few  are 
born  with  honour,  and  how  many  die  without  name  or  children; 
how  little  beauty  we  see,  and  how  few  friends  we  hear  of;  how 
many  diseases,  and  how  much  poverty  there  is  in  the  world; 
you  will  fall  down  upon  your  knees,  and,  instead  of  repining  at 
one  affliction,  will  admire  so  many  blessings  which  you  have 
received  from  the  hand  of  God.'  (Letter  to  Lady  Essex.)  Cicero 
abounds  with  sentences  constructed  after  this  manner. 

The  style  coupe  is,  where  the  sense  is  formed  into  short  inde- 
pendent propositions,  each  complete  within  itself;  as  in  the 
following  of  Mr.  Pope:  'I  confess  it  was  want  of  consideration 
that  made  me  an  author.  I  writ,  because  it  amused  me.  I 
corrected,  because  it  was  as  pleasant  to  me  to  correct  as  to  write. 
I  published,  because  I  was  told,  I  might  please  such  as  it  was  a 
credit  to  please.'  (Preface  to  his  works.)  This  is  very  much  the 
French  method  of  writing;  and  always  suits  gay  and  easy  sub- 
jects. The  style  periodique,  gives  an  air  of  gravity  and  dignity 
to  composition.  The  style  coupe,  is  more  lively  and  striking. 
According  to  the  nature  of  the  composition,  therefore,  and  the 
general  character  it  ought  to  bear,  the  one  or  other  may  be 
predominant.  But  in  almost  every  kind  of  composition,  the 
great  rule  is  to  intermix  them.  For  the  ear  tires  of  either  of 
them  when  too  long  continued :  whereas,  by  a  proper  mixture  of 
long  and  short  periods,  the  ear  is  gratified,  and  a  certain  sprightli- 
ness  is  joined  with  majesty  in  our  style.  'Non  semper.' 

BLAIR,  Rhetoric,  Lecture  XI. 


XXX.  Style  has  two  separate  functions  —  first,  to  brighten  the 
intelligibility  of  a  subject  which  is  obscure  to  the  understanding; 
secondly,  to  regenerate  the  normal  power  and  impressiveness  of 
a  subject  which  has  become  dormant  to  the  sensibilities .... 
Decaying  lineaments  are  to  be  retraced,  and  faded  coloring  to 
be  refreshed. 

DEQUINCEY  (29). 


33 

XXXI.  Can  they  really  think  that  Homer,  or  Pindar,  or  Shakes- 
peare, or  Dry  den,  or  Walter  Scott,  were  accustomed  to  aim  at 
diction  for  its  own  sake,  instead  of  being  inspired  with  their 
subject,  and  pouring  forth  beautiful  words  because  they  had 
beautiful  thoughts?  this  is  surely  too  great  a  paradox  to  be  borne. 
Rather,  it  is  the  fire  within  the  author's  breast  which  overflows 
in  the  torrent  of  his  burning,  irresistible  eloquence;    it  is  the 
poetry  of  his  inner  soul,  which  relieves  itself  in  the  Ode  or  the 
Elegy;   and  his  mental  attitude  and  bearing,  the  beauty  of  his 
moral  countenance,  the  force  and  keenness  of  his  logic,  are 
imaged  in  the  tenderness,  or  energy,  or  richness  of  his  language. 
Nay,  according  to  the  well-known  line,  "facit  indignatio  versus;" 
not  the  words  alone,  but  even  the  rhythm,  the  metre,  the  verse, 
will  be  the  contemporaneous  offspring  of  the  emotion  or  imagina- 
tion which  possesses  him.     "Poeta  nascitur,  non  fit,"  says  the 
proverb ;   and  this  is  in  numerous  instances  true  of  his  poems,  as 
well  as  of  himself .     They  are  born,  not  framed;  they  are  a  strain 
rather  than  a  composition ;  and  their  perfection  is  the  monument, 
not  so  much  of  his  skill  as  of  his  power.     And  this  is  true  of  prose 
as  well  as  of  verse  in  its  degree:   who  will  not  recognize  in  the 
vision  of  Mirza 1  a  delicacy  and  beauty  of  style  which  is  very 
difficult  to  describe,  but  which  is  felt  to  be  in  exact  correspond- 
ence to  the  ideas  of  which  it  is  the  expression? 

NEWMAN  (34),  University  Subjects  II,  Literature  4. 

XXXII.  As  a  certain  unaffected  neatness  and  propriety  and 
grace  of  diction  may  be  required  of  any  author  who  lays  claim  to 
be  a  classic,  for  the  same  reason  that  a  certain  attention  to  dress 
is  expected  of  every  gentleman,  so  to  Cicero  may  be  allowed  the 
privilege  of  the  "os  magna  sonaturum,"  of  which  the  ancient 
critic  speaks.     His  copious,  majestic,  musical  flow  of  language, 
even  if  sometimes  beyond  what  the  subject-matter  demands,  is 
never  out  of  keeping  with  the  occasion  or  with  the  speaker.     It  is 
the  expression  of  lofty  sentiments  in  lofty  sentences,  the  "mens 
magna  in  corpore  magno."     It  is  the  development  of  the  inner 

XXXI.  Example  of  spontaneity  and  heat  (V  A). 

XXXII.  Examples  of  figurative  texture  —  similes  (III  C). 


34 

man.  Cicero  vividly  realised  the  status  of  a  Roman  senator  and 
statesman,  and  the  " pride  of  place"  of  Rome,  in  all  the  grace 
and  grandeur  which  attached  to  her;  and  he  imbibed,  and  be- 
came, what  he  admired.  As  the  exploits  of  Scipio  or  Pompey 
are  the  expression  of  this  greatness  in  deed,  so  the  language  of 
Cicero  is  the  expression  of  it  in  word.  And,  as  the  acts  of  the 
Roman  ruler  or  soldier  represent  to  us,  in  a  manner  special  to 
themselves,  the  characteristic  magnanimity  of  the  lords  of  the 
earth,  so  do  the  speeches  or  treatises  of  her  accomplished  orator 
bring  it  home  to  our  imaginations  as  no  other  writing  could  do. 
Neither  Livy,  nor  Tacitus,  nor  Terence,  nor  Seneca,  nor  Pliny, 
nor  Quintilian,  is  an  adequate  spokesman  for  the  Imperial  City. 
They  write  Latin;  Cicero  writes  Roman. 

NEWMAN  (34),  University  Subjects  II,  Literature  5. 

XXXIII.  His  [Wordsworth's]  remark  was  by  far  the  weighti- 
est thing  we  ever  heard  on  the  subject  of  style;   and  it  was  this: 
that  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  unphilosophic  to  call  language  or 
diction  "the  dress  of  thought."     And  what  was  it  then  that  he 
would  substitute?     Why  this:  he  would  call  it  "the  incarnation 
of  thoughts." 

DEQUINCEY    (29). 

XXXIV.  Redundancy  is  beneficial  when  its  retarding  influence 
is  such  as  only  to  detain  the  mind  longer  on  the  thought,  and  thus 
to  secure  the  fuller  effect  of  the  thought.     For  rapid  reading  is 
often  imperfect  reading.     The  mind  is  satisfied  with  a  glimpse 
of  that  which  it  ought  to  have  steadily  contemplated;   and  any 
artifice  by  which  the  thought  can  be  kept  long  enough  before  the 
mind,  may  indeed  be  a  redundancy  as  regards  the  meaning,  but 
is  an  economy  of  power.     Thus  we  see  that  the  phrase  or  the 
clause  which  we  might  be  tempted  to  lop  away  because  it  threw 
no  light  upon  the  proposition,  would  be  retained  by  a  skilful 
writer  because  it  added  power.     You  may  know  the  character 
of  a  redundancy  by  this  one  test:   does  it  divert  the  attention, 

XXXIII.  Compare  Chesterfield's  view  in  V. 

XXXIV.  Emphasis   of   short   sentences   after   long    (III  B).— 
Most  students  tend  to  unnecessary  redundancy. 


35 

or  simply  retard  it?  The  former  is  always  a  loss  of  power;  the 
latter  is  sometimes  a  gain  of  power.  The  art  of  the  writer  con- 
sists in  rejecting  all  redundancies  that  do  not  conduce  to  clearness. 
The  shortest  sentences  are  not  necessarily  the  clearest.  Con- 
cision gives  energy,  but  it  also  adds  restraint.  The  labor  of 
expanding  a  terse  sentence  to  its  full  meaning  is  often  greater 
than  the  labor  of  picking  out  the  meaning  from  a  diffuse  and 
loitering  passage.  Tacitus  is  more  tiresome  than  Cicero. 

LEWES  (39). 

XXXV.  From   the   common   opinion   that   the   English   style 
attained  its  greatest  perfection  in  and  about  Queen  Anne's  reign 
I  altogether  dissent;   not  only  because  it  is  in  one  species  alone 
in  which  it  can  be  pretended  that  the  writers  of  that  age  excelled 
their  predecessors;    but  also  because  the  specimens  themselves 
are  not  equal,  upon  sound  principles  of  judgment,  to  much  that 
had  been  produced  before.     The  classical  structure  of  Hooker  — 
the    impetuous,    thought-agglomerating    flood    of    Taylor  —  to 
these  there  is  no  pretence  of  a  parallel;   and  for  mere  ease  and 
grace,  is  Cowley  inferior  to  Addison,  being  as  he  is  so  much  more 
thoughtful  and  full  of  fancy?     Cowley,  with  the  omission  of  a 
quaintness  here  and  there,  is  probably  the  best  model  of  style  for 
modern  imitation  in  general.     Taylor's  periods  have  been  fre- 
quently attempted  by  his  admirers;  you  may,  perhaps,  just  catch 
the  turn  of  a  simile  or  single  image,  but  to  write  in  the  real  manner 
of  Jeremy  Taylor  would  require  as  mighty  a  mind  as  his. 

COLERIDGE  (25). 

XXXVI.  Things  are  external  to  the  man;   the  style  is  the  man 
himself.     Style,  then,  can  be  neither  detached,  nor  transferred, 
nor  altered  by  time:  if  it  is  elevated,  noble,  sublime,  the  author 
will  be  admired  equally  in  all  ages.     For  it  is  truth  alone  that  is 
permanent,  that  is  even  eternal.     Now  a  beautiful  style  is.  such 
in  fact  only  by  the  infinite  number  of  truths  that  it  presents. 
All  the  intellectual  graces  residing  in  it,  all  the  interdependences 

XXXV.  Alternation  of  periodic  and  loose  sentence  structure 
(IVC). 


36 

of  which  it  is  composed,  are  truths  not  less  useful,  and  for  the 
human  spirit  possibly  more  precious,  than  those,  whatsoever 
they  be,  that  form  the  core  of  the  subject. 

BUFFON  (translation). 

XXXVII.  Since  the  thoughts  and  reasonings  of  an  author  have, 
as  I  have  said,  a  personal  character,  no  wonder  that  his  style  is 
not  only  the  image  of  his  subject,  but  of  his  mind.     That  pomp 
of  language,  that  full  and  tuneful  diction,  that  felicitousness  in 
the  choice  and  exquisiteness  in  the  collocation  of  words,  which  to 
prosaic  writers  seem  artificial,  is  nothing  else  but  the  mere  habit 
and  way  of  a  lofty  intellect.     Aristotle,  in  his  sketch  of  the 
magnanimous  man,  tells  us  that  his  voice  is  deep,  his  motions 
slow,  and  his  stature  commanding.     In  like  manner,  the  elocu- 
tion of  a  great  intellect  is  great.     His  language  expresses,  not 
only  his  great  thoughts,  but  his  great  self.     Certainly  he  might 
use  fewer  words  than  he  uses;  but  he  fertilizes  his  simplest  ideas, 
and  germinates  into  a  multitude  of  details,  and  prolongs  the 
march  of  his  sentences,  and  sweeps  round  to  the  full  diapason  of 
his  harmony,  as  if  Kvdei  yaicov,  rejoicing  in  his  own  vigour  and 
richness  of  resource.     I  say,  a  narrow  critic  will  call  it  verbiage, 
when  really  it  is  a  sort  of  fulness  of  heart,  parallel  to  that  which 
makes  the  merry  boy  whistle  as  he  walks,  or  the  strong  man,  like 
the  smith  in  the  novel,  nourish  his  club  when  there  is  no  one  to 
fight  with. 

NEWMAN  (34),  University  Teaching  II,  Literature  5. 

XXXVIII.  Nothing  is  more  inimical  to  this  warmth  [of  sustained 
appeal]  than  the  desire  to  be  everywhere  striking;    nothing  is 
more  contrary  to  the  light  which  should  be  at  the  centre  of  a  work, 
and  which  should  be  diffused  uniformly  in  any  composition,  than 
those  sparks  which  are  struck  only  at  the  cost  of  a  violent  collision 
between  words,  and  which  dazzle  us  for  a  moment  or  two,  only 
to  leave  us  in  subsequent  darkness.     These  are  thoughts  that 
shine  only  by  contrast,  when  but  one  aspect  of  an  object  is  pre- 
sented, while  the  remaining  sides  are  put  in  shadow;   and  ordi- 

XXXVII.  Development  by  making  concrete  (I  A  i  b),  parallel 
construction  (IB  2).  Appeal  by  cadence  (V  B). 


37 

narily  the  aspect  chosen  is  a  point  or  angle  whereon  the  writer 
exercises  his  wit  with  the  greater  ease  in  proportion  as  he  departs 
farther  from  the  important  sides  on  which  good  common  sense 
is  accustomed  to  view  things. 

BUFFON  (translation). 

XXXIX.  In  prose  the  least  offensive  of  the  Byzantine  writers 
are  absolved  from  censure  by  their  naked  and  unpresuming 
simplicity;  but  the  orators,  most  eloquent  in  their  own  conceit, 
are  the  farthest  removed  from  the  models  whom  they  affect  to 
emulate.  In  every  page  our  taste  and  reason  are  wounded  by 
the  choice  of  gigantic  and  obsolete  words,  a  stiff  and  intricate 
phraseology,  the  discord  of  images,  the  childish  play  of  false  or 
unreasonable  ornament,  and  the  painful  attempt  to  elevate 
themselves,  to  astonish  the  reader,  and  to  involve  a  trivial  mean- 
ing in  the  smoke  of  obscurity  and  exaggeration.  Their  prose  is 
soaring  to  the  vicious  affectation  of  poetry :  their  poetry  is  sink- 
ing below  the  flatness  and  insipidity  of  prose.  The  tragic,  epic 
and  lyric  muses  were  silent  and  inglorious:  the  bards  of  Con- 
stantinople seldom  rose  above  a  riddle  or  epigram,  a  panegyric 
or  tale. 

GIBBON  (21), 

XL.  After  the  Revolution,  the  spirit  of  the  nation  became  much 
more  commercial  than  it  had  been  before;  a  learned  body,  or 
clerisy,  as  such,  gradually  disappeared,  and  literature  in  general 
began  to  be  addressed  to  the  common  miscellaneous  public. 
That  public  had  become  accustomed  to,  and  required,  a  strong 
stimulus;  and  to  meet  the  requisitions  of  the  public  taste,  a  style 
was  produced  which  by  combining  triteness  of  thought  with 
singularity  and  excess  of  manner  of  expression,  was  calculated 
at  once  to  soothe  ignorance  and  to  flatter  vanity.  The  thought 
was  carefully  kept  down  to  the  immediate  apprehension  of  the 

XXXIX.   Example  of  emphasis  by  hyperbole  (III  B)  through 
words  that  prejudice  unfavorably  (II  C  2  c).     Excessive  pairing 
of  adjectives  and  nouns  (See  Vices  of  style,  p.  118). 
XL.    Emphasis  by  a  Parthian  shot  (III  B). 


38 

commonest  understanding,  and  the  dress  was  as  anxiously  ar- 
ranged for  the  purpose  of  making  the  thought  appear  something 
very  profound.  The  essence  of  this  style  consisted  in  a  mock 
antithesis,  that  is,  an  opposition  of  mere  sounds,  in  a  rage  for 
personification,  the  abstract  made  animate,  far-fetched  meta- 
phors, strange  phrases,  metrical  scraps,  in  everything,  in  short, 
but  genuine  prose.  Style  is,  of  course,  nothing  else  but  the  art/ 
of  conveying  the  meaning  appropriately  and  with  perspicuity.  / 

COLERIDGE  (25^ 

XLI.  Our  writers  write  so  well  that  there  is  little  to  choose 
between  them.  What  they  lack  is  that  individuality,  that 
earnestness,  most  personal  yet  most  unconscious  of  self,  which  is 
the  greatest  charm  of  an  author.  The  very  form  of  the  composi- 
tions of  the  day  suggests  to  us  their  main  deficiency.  They  are 
anonymous.  So  was  it  not  in  the  literature  of  those  nations 
which  we  consider  the  special  standard  of  classical  writing;  so 
is  it  not  with  our  own  Classics.  The  Epic  was  sung  by  the  voice 
of  the  living,  present  poet.  The  drama,  in  its  very  idea,  is 
poetry  in  persons.  Historians  begin,  "Herodotus,  of  Hali- 
carnassus,  publishes  his  researches:"  or,  "Thucydides,  the 
Athenian,  has  composed  an  account  of  the  war."  Pindar  is  all 
through  his  odes  a  speaker.  Plato,  Xenophon,  and  Cicero  throw 
their  philosophical  dissertations  into  the  form  of  a  dialogue. 
Orators  and  preachers  are  by  their  very  profession  known  persons, 
and  the  personal  is  laid  down  by  the  Philosopher  of  antiquity  as 
the  source  of  their  greatest  persuasiveness.  Virgil  and  Horace 
are  ever  bringing  into  their  poetry  their  own  characters  and  tastes. 
Dante's  poems  furnish  a  series  of  events  for  the  chronology  of  his 
times.  Milton  is  frequent  in  allusions  to  his  own  history  and 
circumstances.  Even  when  Addison  writes  anonymously,  he 
writes  under  a  professed  character,  and  that  in  a  great  measure 
his  own;  he  writes  in  the  first  person.  The  "  I "  of  the  Spectator, 
and  the  "we"  of  the  modern  Review  or  Newspaper,  are  the 
respective  symbols  of  the  two  ages  in  our  literature. 

NEWMAN  (34),  University  Subjects  III,  iv,  4. 

XLI.  Example  of  style  coupe  (IV  C).  Observe  that  the  passage 
is  impersonal  (III  D). 


39 

XLII.  What  truth,  then,  was  it  that  was  present  to  those 
mighty  spirits  of  the  past,  who,  making  whatever  is  greatest  in 
writing  their  aim,  thought  it  beneath  them  to  be  exact  in  every 
detail?  Among  many  others  especially  this,  that  it  was  not  in 
nature's  plan  for  us  her  chosen  children  to  be  creatures  base  and 
ignoble, —  no,  she  brought  us  into  life,  and  into  the  whole  uni- 
verse, as  into  some  great  field  of  contest,  that  we  should  be  at 
once  spectators  and  ambitious  rivals  of  her  mighty  deeds,  and 
from  the  first  implanted  in  our  souls  an  invincible  yearning  for  all 
that  is  great,  all  that  is  diviner  than  ourselves.  Therefore  even 
the  whole  world  is  not  wide  enough  for  the  soaring  range  of  human 
thought,  but  man's  mind  often  overleaps  the  very  bounds  of 
space.  When  we  survey  the  whole  circle  of  life,  and  see  it 
abounding  everywhere  in  what  is  elegant,  grand,  and  beautiful, 
we  learn  at  once  what  is  the  true  end  of  man's  being.  And  this 
is  why  nature  prompts  us  to  admire,  not  the  clearness  and  use- 
fulness of  a  little  stream,  but  the  Nile,  the  Danube,  the  Rhine, 
and  far  beyond  all  the  Ocean;  not  to  turn  our  wandering  eyes 
from  the  heavenly  fires,  though  often  darkened,  to  the  little 
flame  kindled  by  human  hands,  however  pure  and  steady  its 
light;  not  to  think  that  tiny  lamp  more  wondrous  than  the  cav- 
erns of  ^Etna,  from  whose  raging  depths  are  hurled  up  stones  and 
whole  masses  of  rock,  and  torrents  sometimes  come  pouring  from 
earth's  centre  of  pure  and  living  fire. 

LONGINUS  (translation). 

XLIII.  A  capital  rule  for  reaching  the  sublime  in  such  works 
of  art  as  are  capable  of  it,  is,  to  present  those  parts  or  circum- 
stances only  which  make  the  greatest  figure,  keeping  out  of  view 
every  thing  low  and  trivial;  for  the  mind,  elevated  by  an  im- 
portant object,  cannot,  without  reluctance,  be  forced  down  to 
bestow  any  share  of  its  attention  upon  trifles.  Such  judicious 
selection  of  capital  circumstances,  is  styled  grandeur  of  manner. 
In  none  of  the  fine  arts  is  there  so  great  scope  for  that  rule  as  in 
poetry;  which,  by  that  means,  enjoys  a  remarkable  power  of 
bestowing  upon  objects  and  events  an  air  of  grandeur:  when  we 

XLIII.    Comparison  with  the  preceding  is  advised. 


40 

are  spectators,  every  minute  object  presents  itself  in  its  order; 
but,  in  describing  at  second-hand,  these  are  laid  aside,  and  the 
capital  objects  are  brought  close  together.  A  judicious  taste  in 
thus  selecting  the  most  interesting  incidents,  to  give  them  an 
united  force,  accounts  for  a  fact  that  may  appear  surprising; 
which  is,  that  we  are  more  moved  by  a  spirited  narrative  at 
second-hand,  than  by  being  spectators  of  the  event  itself,  in  all 
its  circumstances. 

KAMES,  Elements  of  Criticism,  IV. 

XLIV.  Gentlemen,  it  is  thus  —  as  it  seems  to  me  when  I  read 
you  —  that  you  [of  the  Academy]  would  speak  to  me  for  my 
instruction:  my  soul  eagerly  receiving  such  oracles  of  wisdom 
would  fain  take  flight  and  mount  on  a  level  with  you.  How  vain 
the  effort!  Rules,  I  hear  you  add,  can  never  take  the  place  of 
genius.  If  that  be  lacking,  they  are  useless.  To  write  well  — 
it  is  at  once  to  think  deeply,  to  feel  vividly,  and  to  express  clearly; 
it  is  to  have  at  once  intelligence,  sensibility,  and  taste.  Style 
supposes  the  united  exercise  of  all  the  intellectual  faculties. 
Ideas  and  they  alone  are  its  foundation.  Well-sounding  words 
are  a  mere  accessory,  dependent  simply  upon  the  possession  of  an 
external  sense. 

BUFFON  (translation). 


MODELS. 

(The  numbers  in  headings  and  footnotes  refer  to  the  SYLLABUS, 
where  other  examples  are  listed.  Numbers  in  the  text  refer  to 
explanatory  NOTES.  Those  after  authors'  names  refer  to  the 
HISTORICAL  REVIEW,  where  dates  are  given  and  usually  other 
excerpts  from  the  same  author.) 

i.   Development  by  division  in  classes  (I  A  i  b  i  a  (i). — 

It  is  notoriously  known,  through  the  universal  world,  that 
there  be  nine  l  worthy  and  the  best  that  ever  were,  that  is,  to  wit, 
three  Paynims,  three  Jews,  and  three  Christian  men.  As  for 
the  Paynims,  they  were  before  the  Incarnation  of  Christ,  which 
were  named,  the  first,  Hector  of  Troy,  of  whom  the  history  is 
common,  both  in  ballad  and  in  prose;  the  second,  Alexander  the 
Great;  and  the  third,  Julius  Caesar,  Emperor  of  Rome,  of  which 
the  histories  be  well  known  and  had.  And  as  for  the  three  Jews, 
which  also  were  before  the  Incarnation  of  our  Lord,  of  whom  the 
first  was  Duke  2  Joshua,  which  brought  the  children  of  Israel 
into  the  land  of  behest ;  the  second  was  David,  King  of  Jerusalem ; 
and  the  third  Judas  Maccabeus.  Of  these  three,  the  Bible 
rehearse th  all  their  noble  histories  and  acts.  And,  since  the  said3 
Incarnation,  have  been  three  noble  Christian  men,  stalled  and 
admitted  through  the  universal  world,  into  the  number  of  the 
nine  best  and  worthy :  of  whom  was  first,  the  noble  Arthur,  whose 
noble  acts  I  purpose  to  write  in  this  present  book  here  following; 
the  second  was  Charlemagne,  or  Charles  the  Great,  of  whom  the 
history  is  had  in  many  places,  both  in  French  and  in  English; 
and  the  third,  and  last,  was  Godfrey  of  Boulogne,  of  whose  acts 

i.  In  structure  clear  (V  B)  but  too  monotonous  and  obvious 
(III  A).  Subjects:  Kinds  of  books  (or  plays)  I  like;  Types  of 
people  at  a  summer  hotel,  at  church ;  Studies  which  constitute  an 
ideal  education. —  Notice  the  arrangement  by  historic  order 
(I  A  2),  key  sentence  (IB  i  a),  use  of  numbers,  and  coherence 
by  parallel  construction  (I  B  2).  —  See  Development,  p.  107, 
and  Outlining,  p.  113.  In  writing  an  original  composition  with 
the  same  method  of  development,  first  outline  this  thoroughly; 
then  make  an  outline  closely  parallel;  then  follow  this  outline  in 
your  theme.  Write  it  below  your  finished  copy. 


42 

and  life  I  made  a  book  unto  the  excellent  prince  and  king,  of  noble 
memory,  King  Edward  the  Fourth. 

CAXTON  (i),  Prologue  to  Malory's  Morte  D' Arthur. 

2.  Development  by  typical  examples  (I  A  i  b  i  a  (2)  a).— 
People  continually  forget  that  there  is  a  separate  public  for 

every  picture,  and  for  every  book.  Appealed  to  with  reference 
to  any  particular  work,  the  public  is  that  class  of  persons  who 
possess  the  knowledge  which  it  presupposes,  and  the  faculties 
to  which  it  is  addressed.  With  reference  to  a  new  edition  of 
Newton's  Principia,  the  "public"  means  little  more  than  the 
Royal  Society.1  With  reference  to  Wordsworth's  poems,  it 
means  all  who  have  hearts.  With  reference  to  one  of  Moore's, 
all  who  have  passions.  With  reference  to  the  works  of  Hogarth, 
it  means  those  who  have  worldly  knowledge  —  to  the  works  of 
Giotto,  those  who  have  religious  faith.  Each  work  must  be 
tested  exclusively  by  the  fiat  of  the  particular  public  to  which  it 
is  addressed. 

RUSKIN  (40),  Arrows  of  the  Chase. 

3.  Development  by  exceptional  examples  (I  A  i  b  i  a  (2)  13).— 
With  the  single  exception  of  Falstaff ,  all  Shakespeare's  charac- 

2.  The  two  types,  pictures  and  books,  might  better  have  come  in 
succession  in  two  paragraphs. —  Subjects:    Definition  of  a  term 
in  a  debate;  A  gentleman;  A  sport;  'The  dictionary.'  —  Cogent 
(V  B)  and  nervously  written  (V  A),  confident  (V  A)  and  earnest 
(HID).     Texture  allusive   (III  A)    with  ill-chosen   echo   word 
(III  B:    public  absorbs  the  emphasis,  obscuring  what  Ruskin 
wishes  to  say  about  the  word).     Notice  that  the  author's  bias 
limits   illustration   to   books   and   pictures.     Good   example  of 
balance   (I  B  2)   and   of  expressiveness   through  related  words 
(hearts,  passions,  knowledge,  faith). 

3.  Stevenson  disposes  of  the  examples  likely  to  be  cited  against 
him.     The  parenthesis  is  apologetic. —  Subjects:    any  maxim  or 
proverb;  a  debate  with  conscience. —  Example  of  brevity  (III  A) 
and  penetration  (V  A),  with  allusive  texture  (III  C).     Note  the 
echo  (III  B :  marry,  single).     Sequence  by  answering  in  anticipa- 
tion (IV  A),  with  limitation  to  the  most  important  cases  (I  A 
ib2). 


43 

ters  are  what  we  call  marrying  men.  Mercutio,  as  he  was  own 
cousin  to  Benedick  and  Biron,  would  have  come  to  the  same  end 
in  the  long  run.  Even  lago  had  a  wife,  and,  what  is  far  stranger, 
he  was  jealous.  People  like  Jacques  and  the  Fool  in  Lear,  al- 
though we  can  hardly  imagine  they  would  ever  marry,  kept  single 
out  of  a  cynical  humour  or  for  a  broken  heart,  and  not,  as  we  do 
nowadays,  from  a  spirit  of  incredulity  and  preference  for  the 
single  state.  For  that  matter,  if  you  turn  to  George  Sand's 
French  version  of  As  You  Like  It  (and  I  think  I  can  promise  you 
will  like  it  but  little),  you  will  find  Jacques  marries  Celia  just  as 
Orlando  marries  Rosalind. 

STEVENSON  (46),  Virginibus  Puerisque. 

4.   Development  by  instances  (I  A  i  b  i  a  (2)  7).— 

Such  were  ADDISON'S  TALENTS  FOR  CONVERSATION.  But  his 
rare  gifts  were  NOT  EXHIBITED  TO  CROWDS  OR  TO  STRANGERS. 
As  soon  as  he  entered  a  large  company,  as  soon  as  he  saw  an 
unknown  face,  his  lips  were  sealed,  and  his  manners  became 
constrained.  None  who  met  him  only  in  great  assemblies 
would  have  been  able  to  believe  that  he  was  the  same  man  who 
had  often  kept  a  few  friends  listening  and  laughing  round  a  table 
from  the  time  when  the  play  ended  till  the  clock  of  St.  Paul's  in 
Co  vent  Garden l  struck  four.  Yet  even  at  such  a  table  he  was 
not  seen  to  the  best  advantage.  To  enjoy  his  conversation  in 
the  highest  perfection,  it  was  necessary  to  be  alone  with  him,  and 
to  hear  him,  in  his  own  phrase,  think  aloud.  "  There  is  no  such 


4.  Illustration  by  three  types  of  occurrences. —  Study  the  devices 
for  coherence  and  emphasis.  For  coherence  (I  B  2), —  connec- 
tives (such,  but,  yet),  pronouns  (his,  he,  him},  echo  (table,  con- 
versation), synonyms  (talents  and  rare  gifts,  strangers  and 
unknown  face,  advantage  and  perfection),  parallel  construction 
(as  soon  as,  lips  sealed  and  manners  constrained),  and  transitional 
statements  (sentences  beginning  with  such  and  yet).  For 
emphasis  (III  B), —  climax,  concreteness  in  the  middle  of  the 
paragraph,  periodic  sentence  structure,  hyperbole  (as  soon  as, 
none,  necessary),  suspense  (in  the  last  sentences). —  Notice  the 
key  phrases  (I  B  i)  serving  as  topic  statement,  and  the  order  of 
climax  (I  A  2  b:  from  not  seen,  through  fairly  seen,  to  best  seen). 


44 

thing,"  he  used  to  say,  "as  real  conversation,  but  between  two 
persons." 

MACAULAY  (32),  Review  of  Aiken's  Addison. 

5.   Development  by  details  (I  A  i  b  i  a  (3)  a).— 

Two  men  I  honour,  and  no  third.  First,  the  toil  worn  Crafts- 
man that  with  earth-made  Implement  laboriously  conquers  the 
Earth,  and  makes  her  man's.  Venerable  to  me  is  the  hard  Hand ; 
crooked,  coarse;  wherein  notwithstanding  lies  a  cunning  virtue, 
indefeasibly  royal,  as  of  the  Sceptre  of  this  Planet.  Venerable 
too  is  the  rugged  face,  all  weather- tanned,  besoiled,  with  its  rude 
intelligence;  for  it  is  the  face  of  a  Man  living  manlike.  O,  but 
the  more  venerable  for  thy  rudeness,  and  even  because  we  must 
pity  as  well  as  love  thee !  Hardly-entreated  Brother !  For  us  was 
thy  back  so  bent,  for  us  were  thy  straight  limbs  and  fingers  so 
deformed:  thou  wert  our  Conscript,  on  whom  the  lot  fell,  and 
fighting  our  battles  wert  so  marred.  For  in  thee  too  lay  a  god- 
created  Form,  but  it  was  not  to  be  unfolded;  encrusted  must  it 
stand  with  the  thick  adhesions  and  defacements  of  Labour:  and 
thy  body,  like  thy  soul,  was  not  to  know  freedom.  Yet  toil  on, 
toil  on:  thou  art  in  thy  duty,  be  out  of  it  who  may;  thou  toilest 
for  the  altogether  indispensable,  for  daily  bread. 

A  second  man  I  honour,  and  still  more  highly:  Him  who  is 
seen  toiling  for  the  spiritually  indispensable;  not  daily  bread,  but 
the  bread  of  Life.  Is  not  he  too  in  his  duty;  endeavouring  to- 
wards inward  Harmony;  revealing  this,  by  act  or  by  word, 
through  all  his  outward  endeavours,  be  they  high  or  low?  Highest 
of  all,  when  his  outward  and  his  inward  endeavour  are  one, 
when  we  can  name  him  Artist;  not  earthly  Craftsman  only,  but 
inspired  Thinker,  who  with  heaven-made  Implement  conquers 


5.  The  capitals  suggest  German  influence. —  Subjects:  Types  of 
students,  architecture,  government. —  Tenor  highly  elevated 
(V  B)  though  sentimental  (V  A) ;  texture  emotional  (III  D) 
with  emphasis  also  from  sentence  inversion  (III  B),  movement 
abrupt  (IVB).  Notice  the  coherence  by  personal  pronoun 
(IB  2);  unity  shown  by  numbers  (IB  i);  and  arrangement  of 
known  before  unknown  (I  A  2 :  laborer  before  artist) . 


45 

Heaven  for  us !  If  the  poor  and  humble  toil  that  we  have  Food, 
must  not  the  high  and  glorious  toil  for  him  in  return,  that  he  have 
Light,  have  Guidance,  Freedom,  Immortality?  —  These  two, 
in  all  their  degrees,  I  honour;  all  else  is  chaff  and  dust,  which  let 
the  wind  blow  whither  it  listeth. 

CARLYLE  (31),  Sartor  Resartus,  III,  iv. 

6.   Development  by  circumstances  (I  A  i  b  /  a  (3)  0).— 

Such  being  the  Maid-servant's  life  in-doors,  she  scorns,  when 
abroad,  to  be  anything  but  a  creature  of  sheer  enjoyment.  The 
Maid-servant,  the  sailor,  the  school-boy,  are  the  three  beings  that 
enjoy  a  holiday  beyond  all  the  rest  of  the  world;  —  and  all  for 
the  same  reason, —  because  their  inexperience,  peculiarity  of  life, 
and  habit  of  being  with  persons  of  circumstances  or  thoughts 
above  them,  give  them  all,  in  their  way,  a  cast  of  the  romantic. 
The  most  active  of  the  money-getters  is  a  vegetable  compared 
with  them.  The  Maid-servant  when  she  first  goes  to  Vauxhall,1 
thinks  she  is  in  heaven.  A  theatre  is  all  pleasure  to  her,  whatever 
is  going  forward,  whether  the  play  or  the  music,  or  the  waiting 
which  makes  others  impatient,  or  the  munching  of  apples  and 
gingerbread,  which  she  and  her  party  commence  almost  as  soon 
as  they  have  seated  themselves.  She  prefers  tragedy  to  comedy, 
because  it  is  grander,  and  less  like  what  she  meets  with  in  general; 
and  because  she  thinks  it  more  in  earnest  also,  especially  in  the 
love-scenes.  Her  favourite  play  is  "  Alexander  the  Great,  or 
the  Rival  Queens."1  Another  great  delight  is  going  a  shopping. 
She  loves  to  look  at  the  pictures  in  the  windows,  and  the  fine 
things  labelled  with  those  corpulent  numerals  of  "only  ys."  — 
"only  6s.  6  p."  She  has  also,  unless  born  and  bred  in  London, 
been  to  see  my  Lord  Mayor,  the  fine  people  coming  out  of  Court, 


6.  Circumstances  given  under  four  types  of  occasion. —  Subjects: 
The  debutante;  the  misanthrope. —  An  example  of  observation 
(VA)  appealing  by  picturesqueness  and  humor  (V  B).  In 
texture  simple  (III  A),  natural  and  literal  (III  C),  it  gains  force 
and  emphasis  by  concreteness  (III  B).  Note  the  coherence  by 
conjunctions  and  pronouns  (IB  2),  the  order  of  climax  (I  A  2  b), 
and  limitation  of  topics  on  the  principle  of  interest  (I  A  i  a  2). 


46 

and  the  "beasties"  in  the  Tower;  and  at  all  events  she  has  been 
to  Astley  's  3  and  the  Circus,  from  which  she  comes  away,  equally 
smitten  with  the  rider,  and  sore  with  laughing  at  the  clown. 
But  it  is  difficult  to  say  what  pleasure  she  enjoys  most.  One 
of  the  completest  of  all  is  the  fair,  where  she  walks  through  an 
endless  round  of  noise,  and  toys  and  gallant  apprentices,  and 
wonders.  Here  she  is  invited  in  by  courteous  and  well-dressed 
people,  as  if  she  were  a  mistress.  Here  also  is  the  conjuror's 
booth,  where  the  operator  himself,  a  most  stately  and  genteel 
person  all  in  white,  calls  her  Ma'am;  and  says  to  John  by  her  side, 
in  spite  of  his  laced  hat,  "Be  good  enough,  sir,  to  hand  the  card 
to  the  lady." 

LEIGH  HUNT  (28),  The  Maid-Servant  (Indicator}. 


7.   Development  by  tracing  similarity  (I  A  i  b  i  b  (i)  a).— 
Certainly  a  liberal  education  does  manifest  itself  in  a  courtesy, 

propriety,  and  polish  of  word  and  action,  which  is  beautiful  in 
itself,  and  acceptable  to  others;  but  it  does  much  more.  It 
brings  the  mind  into  form,  —  for  the  mind  is  like  the  body. 
Boys  outgrow  their  shape  and  their  strength;  their  limbs  have 
to  be  knit  together,  and  their  constitution  needs  tone.  Mistaking 
animal  spirits  for  vigour,  and  over-confident  in  their  health, 
ignorant  what  they  can  bear  and  how  to  manage  themselves,  they 
are  immoderate  and  extravagant;  and  fall  into  sharp  sicknesses. 
This  is  an  emblem  of  their  minds;  at  first  they  have  no  prin- 
ciples laid  down  within  them  as  a  foundation  for  the  intellect  to 
build  upon;  they  have  no  discriminating  convictions,  and  no 
grasp  of  consequences.  And  therefore  they  talk  at  random,  if 
they  talk  much,  and  cannot  help  being  flippant,  or  what  is 
emphatically  called  "young."  They  are  merely  dazzled  by 
phenomena,  instead  of  perceiving  things  as  they  are. 

NEWMAN  (34),  Idea  of  a  University,  Preface. 


7.  Even  in  movement  (IV  B)  and  texture  (III  B),  literal  (IV  C) , 
with  reflex  sequence  (IV  A).  Hyperbole  in  the  wording,  with- 
out saving  provisos.  The  phrases  too  often  are  grouped  in  pairs. 
See  SUGGESTIONS,  p.  118. 


47 

8.   Development  by  contrast  (I  A  i  b  i  b  (i)  B).— 

(The  following  is  not  an  example  of  imitation,  but  execution 
of  an  abstract  requirement  to  secure  emphasis  by  antithesis.) 

On  Speaking  and  Writing. 

I  have  always  preferred  writing  to  speaking.  The  latter  I 
consider  instantaneous  and  hurried,  the  former  careful  and  pro- 
longed. Speaking  is  more  or  less  compulsory,  writing  is  always 
free  of  restraint.  In  speaking,  one  has  scarcely  time  enough 
to  formulate  his  ideas;  in  writing,  the  author  has  all  the  oppor- 
tunities necessary  for  a  successful  description  of  his  thought. 
The  first  is  a  mode  of  expression  devoid  of  all  deep  study,  the 
second  can  never  be  undertaken  without  the  application  of  care- 
ful thought.  In  short,  speaking  is  an  act  without  pleasure, 
writing  a  veritable  recreation. 

STUDENT'S  THEME. 

8a.  I  have  found,  by  trial,  Homer  a  more  pleasing  task  than 
Virgil,  though  I  say  not  the  translation  will  be  less  laborious; 
for  the 'Grecian  is  more  according  to  my  genius  than  the  Latin 
poet.  In  the  works  of  the  two  authors  we  may  read  their 
manners,  and  natural  inclinations,  which  are  wholly  different. 
Virgil  was  of  a  quiet,  sedate  temper;  Homer  was  violent,  impet- 
uous, and  full  of  fire.  The  chief  talent  of  Virgil  was  propriety 
of  thoughts,  and  ornament  of  words:  Homer  was  rapid  in  his 
thoughts,  and  took  all  the  liberties,  both  of  numbers  and  of 
expressions,  which  his  language,  and  the  age  in  which  he  lived, 
allowed  him.  Homer's  invention  was  more  copious,  Virgil's 
more  confined ;  so  that  if  Homer  had  not  led  the  way,  it  was  not 
in  Virgil  to  have  begun  heroic  poetry;  for  nothing  can  be  more 
evident,  than  that  the  Roman  poem  is  but  the  second  part  of 
the  I  lias;  a  continuation  of  the  same  story,  and  the  persons 
already  formed. 

DRYDEN  (i2a),  Preface  to  the  Fables. 

8.    Reflex  sequence  (IV  A)  again,  with  emphasis  by  antithesis 
(III  B).     The  interest  arises  from  oddity   (V  B).     Orderliness 
(V  A)  is  carried  to  an  extreme. 
8^_     Free  from  the  pedantic  finesse  of  the  preceding. 


48 

g.   Development  by  pro  and  con  (I  A  i  b  i  b  (i)  5).— 

Lady  Bustle  has,  indeed,  by  this  incessant  application  to 
fruits  and  flowers,  contracted  her  cares  into  a  narrow  space,  and 
set  herself  free  from  many  perplexities  with  which  other  minds 
are  disturbed.  She  has  no  curiosity  after  the  events  of  a  war, 
or  the  fate  of  heroes  in  distress;  she  can  hear  without  the  least 
emotion  the  ravage  of  a  fire,  or  devastations  of  a  storm;  her 
neighbours  grow  rich  or  poor,  come  into  the  world  or  go  out  of  it, 
without  regard,  while  she  is  pressing  the  jelly-bag,  or  airing  the 
store-room;  but  I  cannot  perceive  that  she  is  more  free  from 
disquiet  than  those  whose  understandings  take  a  wider  range. 
Her  marigolds,  when  they  are  almost  cured,  are  often  scattered 
by  the  wind,  the  rain  sometimes  falls  upon  fruit  when  it  ought 
to  be  gathered  dry.  While  her  artificial  wines  are  fermenting, 
her  whole  life  is  restlessness  and  anxiety.  Her  sweetmeats  are 
not  always  bright,  and  the  maid  sometimes  forgets  the  just  pro- 
portion of  salt  and  pepper,  when  venison  is  to  be  baked.  Her 
conserves  mould,  her  wines  sour,  and  pickles  mother;  and,  like 
all  the  rest  of  mankind,  she  is  every  day  mortified  with  the  defeat 
of  her  schemes  and  the  disappointment  of  her  hopes. 

JOHNSON  (18),  Employments  of  a  Housewife, Rambler,  No.  51. 

10.   Development  by  sequence  in  time  (I  A  i  b  i  b  (2)  a).— 

They  that  desire  the  delights  corporal,  and  suffer  their  souls 
to  die  for  hunger,  be  like  to  a  man  that  fled  tofore  an  unicorn 
that  he  should  not  devour  him,  and  in  fleeing  he  fell  into  a  great 
pit,  and  as  he  fell  he  caught  a  branch  of  a  tree  with  his  hands  and 
set  his  feet  upon  a  sliding  place,  and  then  saw  two  mice  that  one 

9.  Reflex  movement   (IV  A)   again  with  interest  from  oddity 
(V  A) .     The  tenor  is  reflective   (V  A)   and  rate  of  movement 
gradual  (IV  B).     In  texture,  direct  (III  C),  impersonal  (III  D), 
and  detailed  (III  A).     Coherence  again  shown  by  the  personal 
pronoun. 

10.  Stevenson's  "disjointed  babbling  of  the   old  chronicler"  is 
here  exemplified.     Clearly  impromptu  (VA)  and  appealing  by 
naivete  (VB).     The  texture  is  natural  (III  C)  and  highly  con- 
crete (III  A).     The  student  should  welcome  its  0wd-sentences 
as  akin  to  his  own  frailties. 


49 

white  and  that  other  black,  which  without  ceasing  gnawed  the 
root  of  the  tree,  and  had  almost  gnawed  it  asunder.  And  he 
saw  in  the  bottom  of  the  pit  a  horrible  dragon  casting  fire,  and 
had  his  mouth  open  and  desired  to  devour  him. 

CAXTON  (i),  Golden  Legend,  "Barlam  the  Hermit." 

ii.   Development  by  course  of  procedure  (I  A  i  b  i  b  (2)  /?).— 

A  wealthy  man,  addicted  to  his  pleasure  and  to  his  profits , 
finds  religion  to  be  a  traffic  so  entangled,  and  of  so  many  piddling 
accounts,  that  of  all  mysteries  he  cannot  skill  to  keep  a  stock 
going  upon  that  trade.  What  should  he  do?  Fain  he  would 
have  the  name  to  be  religious;  fain  he  would  bear  up  with  his 
neighbors  in  that.  What  does  he,  therefore,  but  resolve  to  give 
over  toiling,  and  to  find  himself  out  some  factor,  to  whose  care 
and  credit  he  may  commit  the  whole  managing  of  his  religious 
affairs;  some  divine  of  note  and  estimation  that  must  be.  To 
him  he  adheres,  resigns  the  whole  warehouse  of  his  religion,  with 
all  the  locks  and  keys,  into  his  custody;  and  indeed  makes  the 
very  person  of  that  man  his  religion;  esteems  his  associating 
with  him  a  sufficient  evidence  and  commendatory  of  his  own 
piety.  So  that  a  man  may  say,  his  religion  is  now  no  more 
within  himself,  but  is  become  a  dividual  movable,  and  goes  and 
comes  near  him,  according  as  that  good  man  frequents  the  house. 
He  entertains  him,  gives  him  gifts,  feasts  him,  lodges  him;  his 
religion  comes  home  at  night,  prays,  is  liberally  supped,  and 
sumptuously  laid  to  sleep,  rises,  is  saluted,  and  after  the  malmsey, 
or  some  well-spiced  beverage,  and  better  breakfasted  than  he 
whose  morning  appetite  would  have  gladly  fed  on  green  figs 
between  Bethany  and  Jerusalem,  his  religion  walks  abroad  at 
eight,  and  leaves  his  kind  entertainer  in  the  shop,  trading  all  day 
without  his  religion. 

MILTON  (10). 

1 1 .  Grave  and  of  idealistic  tenor  (V  A) ,  in  movement  slow 
(IV  B),  with  emphasis  by  anticlimax  (III  B).  The  arrangement 
is  figuratively  made  temporal  (I  A  2)  and  concrete  (III  A). 
The  diction  is  colored  (II  C)  to  prejudice  a  reader  unfavorably. 
Quoted  admiringly  by  Emerson. 


50 

12.  Development  by  cause  and  effect  (I  A  i  b  i  b  (2)  7).— 
Philosophers,  on  the  other  hand,  have  no  such  aggressive  ten- 
dencies.    With  eyes  fixed  on  the  noble  goal  to  which  per  aspera 
et  ardua  1  they  tend,  they  may,  now  and  then,  be  stirred  to 
momentary  wrath  by  the  unnecessary  obstacles  with  which  the 
ignorant  or  the  malicious  encumber,  if  they  cannot  bar,  the 
difficult  path;    but  why  should  their  souls  be  deeply  vexed? 
The  majesty  of  Fact  is  on  their  side,  and  the  elemental  forms  of 
nature  are  working  for  them.     Not  a  star  comes  to  the  meridian 
at  its  calculated  time  but  testifies  to  the  justice  of  their  methods 
—  their  beliefs  are  "one  with  the  falling  rain  and  with  the  grow- 
ing corn."     By  doubt  they  are  established,  and  open  inquiry  is 
their  bosom  friend.     Such  men  have  no  fear  of  traditions,  how- 
ever venerable,  and  no  respect  for  them  when  they  become  mis- 
chievous and  obstructive;    but   they  have  better  than  mere 
antiquarian  business  in  hand,  and  if  dogmas,  which  ought  to  be 
fossil  but  are  not,  are  not  forced  upon  their  notice,  they  are  too 
happy  to  treat  them  as  nonexistent. 

MILL  (33),  On  Liberty,  ch.  ii. 

13.  Development  by  anticipating  questions  (I  A  i  b  i  b  (2)  6).— 
For  another  example,  let  us  consider  the  way  in  which  we  infer 

the  truth  of  an  historical  event  —  say  the  siege  of  Syracuse  in 
the  Peloponnesian  war.  Our  experience  is  that  manuscripts 
exist  which  are  said  to  be  and  which  call  themselves  manuscripts 
of  the  history  of  Thucydides;  that  in  other  manuscripts,  stated 
to  be  by  later  historians,  he  is  described  as  living  during  the  time 
of  the  war;  and  that  books,  supposed  to  date  from  the  revival 


12.  Example  of  ideality  and  sublimity   (V  B),  deliberate  and 
grave   in   tenor    (VA).     Movement   and   texture   even    (IV  B, 
III  B),  attitude  staid  (III  D). 

13.  Each  successive  statement  answers  a  doubt  which  will  arise 
in  the  mind  of  the  critical  reader  (IV  A) .     The  arrangement  is 
from  simple  to  complex  (I  A  2  b) ,  and  coherence  shown  by  parallel 
construction  (IB  2).     Example  of  cogency  (V  B),  with  reflexion, 
deliberateness,  and  penetration  (V  A).     Useful  in  argumentation 
to  win  conviction. 


of  learning,  tell  us  how  these  manuscripts  had  been  preserved  and 
were  then  acquired.  We  find  also  that  men  do  not,  as  a  rule, 
forge  books  and  histories  without  a  special  motive;  we  assume 
that  in  this  respect  men  in  the  past  were  like  men  in  the  present ; 
and  we  observe  that  in  this  case  no  special  motive  was  present. 
That  is,  we  add  to  our  experience  on  the  assumption  of  a  uni- 
formity in  the  characters  of  men. 

CLIFFORD  (45),  The  Ethics  of  Belief. 

14.   Development  by  making  an  abstraction  concrete   (II  A  i 

b  /«(!)).- 

Voltaire  is  the  prince  of  buffoons.  His  merriment  is  without 
disguise  or  restraint.  He  gambols;  he  grins;  he  shakes  the  sides ; 
he  points  the  finger;  he  turns  up  the  nose;  he  shoots  out  the 
tongue.  The  manner  of  Swift  is  the  very  opposite  to  this.  He 
moves  laughter,  but  never  joins  in  it.  He  appears  in  his  works 
such  as  he  appeared  in  society.  All  the  company  are  convulsed 
with  merriment,  while  the  Dean,1  the  author  of  all  the  mirth, 
preserves  an  invincible  gravity,  and  even  sourness  of  aspect,  and 
gives  utterance  to  the  most  eccentric  and  ludicrous  fancies,  with 
the  air  of  a  man  reading  the  commination  service.2 

The  manner  of  Addison  is  as  remote  from  that  of  Swift  as  from 
that  of  Voltaire.  He  neither  laughs  out  like  the  French  wit,  nor, 
like  the  Irish  wit,  throws  a  double  portion  of  severity  into  his 
countenance  while  laughing  inwardly;  but  preserves  a  look 
peculiarly  his  own  —  a  look  of  demure  serenity,  disturbed  only 
by  an  arch  sparkle  of  the  eye,  an  almost  imperceptible  elevation 
of  the  brow,  an  almost  imperceptible  curl  of  the  lip.  His  tone 
is  never  that  either  of  a  Jack  Pudding  3  or  of  a  cynic.  It  is  that  of 
a  gentleman,  in  whom  the  quickest  sense  of  the  ridiculous  is 
constantly  tempered  by  good  nature  and  good  breeding. 

MACAULAY  (32),  Review  of  Miss  Aikin's  Addison. 


14.  Differentiation  of  three  types  of  humor  by  contrast  in  physi- 
cal appearance  of  the  humorist.—  Subjects:  analysis  of  types  of 
beauty,  worth,  charm,  courage,  etc. —  Vivacious  (III  D)  and  of 
varying  movement  (IV  B)  largely  style  coupe  (IV  C),  gaining 
emphasis  by  hyperbole  (II  C,  III  B)  and  interest  through  oddity 
(V  B).  An  example  of  hyperbole. 


52 

15.  Development  by  proof  (I  A  i  b  i  c  (3)).— 

Life  is  not  long  enough  for  a  religion  of  inferences;  we  shall 
never  have  done  beginning,  if  we  determine  to  begin  with  proof. 
We  shall  ever  be  laying  our  foundations;  we  shall  turn  theology 
into  evidences,  and  divines  into  textuaries.  We  shall  never  get 
at  our  first  principles.  Resolve  to  believe  nothing,  and  you  must 
prove  your  proofs  and  analyse  your  elements,  sinking  farther  and 
farther,  and  finding  'in  the  lowest  depth  a  lower  deep,'1  till  you 
come  to  the  broad  bosom  of  scepticism.  I  would  rather  be  bound 
to  defend  the  reasonableness  of  assuming  that  Christianity  is  true, 
than  to  demonstrate  a  moral  government  from  the  physical 
world.  Life  is  for  action.  If  we  insist  on  proofs  for  every  thing, 
we  shall  never  come  to  action :  to  act  you  must  assume,  and  that 
assumption  is  faith. 

NEWMAN  (34),  Grammar  of  Ascent. 

16.  Arrangement  for  conviction   (I  A  2  b  3). — 

I  hold  very  strongly  that  the  first  step  in  intellectual  training 
is  to  impress  upon  a  boy's  mind  the  idea  of  science,  method,  order, 
principle,  and  system;  of  rule  and  exception,  of  richness  and 
harmony.  This  is  commonly  and  excellently  done  by  making 
him  begin  with  Grammar ;  nor  can  too  great  accuracy,  or  minute- 
ness and  subtlety  of  teaching  be  used  towards  him,  as  his  faculties 
expand,  with  this  simple  purpose.  Hence  it  is  that  critical 
scholarship  is  so  important  a  discipline  for  him  when  he  is  leaving 
school  for  the  University.  A  second  science  is  the  Mathematics: 
this  should  follow  Grammar,  still  with  the  same  object,  viz.,  to 
give  him  a  conception  of  development  and  arrangement  from  and 
around  a  common  centre.  Hence  it  is  that  Chronology  and 
Geography  are  so  necessary  for  him,  when  he  reads  History, 
which  is  otherwise  little  better  than  a  storybook.  Hence,  too, 

15.  Example  of  cogency  with  strong  personal  association  (V  B). 
Tenor  confident  and  savoring  of  chicane  (VA).     Texture  ab- 
stract  (III  A),  with  emphasis  by  abruptness   (III  B).     Move- 
ment rapid  (IV  B). 

1 6.  In  urging  the  adoption  of  certain  studies,  Newman  empha- 
sizes the  reasons  by  placing  them  first  and  last.     Example  of 
earnest  stress  (V  A) . 


53 

Metrical  Composition,  when  he  reads  Poetry;  in  order  to  stimu- 
late his  powers  into  action  in  every  practicable  way,  and  to 
prevent  a  merely  passive  reception  of  images  and  ideas  which  in 
that  case  are  likely  to  pass  out  of  the  mind  as  soon  as  they  have 
entered  it.  Let  him  once  gain  this  habit  of  method,  of  starting 
from  fixed  points,  of  making  his  ground  good  as  he  goes,  of  dis- 
tinguishing what  he  knows  from  what  he  does  not  know,  and  I 
conceive  he  will  be  gradually  initiated  into  the  largest  and  truest 
philosophical  views,  and  will  feel  nothing  but  impatience  and 
disgust  at  the  random  theories  and  imposing  sophistries  and 
dashing  paradoxes,  which  carry  away  half -formed  and  super- 
ficial intellects. 

NEWMAN  (34),  Idea  of  a  University,  Preface. 

17.   Key  sentence  at  the  end  (IB  i  a  /  b).— 

"It  is  not  only  the  leader  of  men,  statesman,  philosopher,  or 
poet,  who  owes  this  bounden  duty  to  mankind.  Every  rustic 
who  delivers  in  the  village  alehouse  his  slow  infrequent  sentences, 
may  help  to  kill  or  keep  alive  the  fatal  superstitions  which  clog 
his  race.  Every  hard- worked  wife  of  an  artisan  may  transmit 
to  her  children  beliefs  which  shall  knit  society  together,  or  rend 
it  in  pieces.  No  simplicity  of  mind,  no  obscurity  of  station,  can 
escape  the  universal  duty  of  questioning  all  that  we  believe." 

CLIFFORD  (45),  The  Ethics  of  Belief.'' 


17.    Here  the  topic  sentence  is  placed  for  emphasis  at  the  end, 
as  a  conclusion  based  on  the  examples. 

The  masses,  as  well  as  their  leaders,  should  question  whatever 
they  believe,  for 

1 .  The  country  talker  in  the  tavern  influences  the  survival  of 
superstitions 

2.  The  artisan's  wife  influences  the  beliefs  of  her  children. 
The  first  sentence  recalls  the  paragraph  preceding,  and  prepares 
by  not  only  for  addition  along  the  same  line.     Notice  the  empha- 
sis gained  (a)  by  making  the  persons  extremes  —  unlikely  to  lead : 
a  village  gossip,  slow  and  inapt  to  talk,  or  a  hired  woman;    (b) 
by  heightening  the  consequences  — •  kill ,  fatal,  clog,  rend  it  in 
pieces.     Note  that  Clifford  so  far  offers  no  proof,  but  merely 
asserts. 


54 

18.  Topic  statement  suggested  by  associated  echoes  (I  B  i  a  2)  .— 

The  disparagers  of  CULTURE  make  its  MOTIVE  CURIOSITY; 
sometimes,  indeed,  they  make  its  MOTIVE  mere  exclusiveness  and 
vanity.  The  CULTURE  which  is  supposed  to  plume  itself  on  a 
smattering  of  Greek  and  Latin  is  a  CULTURE  which  is  begotten  by 
nothing  so  intellectual  as  CURIOSITY;  it  is  valued  either  out  of 
sheer  vanity  and  ignorance  or  else  as  an  engine  of  social  and  class 
distinction,  separating  its  holder,  like  a  badge  or  title,  from  other 
persons  who  have  not  got  it.  No  serious  man  would  call  this 
culture,  or  attach  any  value  to  it,  as  CULTURE,  at  all.  To  find 
the  real  ground  for  the  very  differing  estimate  which  serious 
people  will  set  upon  CULTURE,  we  must  find  some  MOTIVE  for 
CULTURE  in  the  terms  of  which  may  lie  a  real  ambiguity;  and 
such  a  MOTIVE  the  word  curiosity  gives  us. 

ARNOLD  (43),  Sweetness  and  Light. 

19.  Unity  shown  by  paragraphing  (IB  i  b  /). — 

Studies  serve  for  pastimes,  for  ornaments,  for  abilities;  their 

18.  The  words  culture  (7),  motive  (4),  curiosity  (3)  transmit  the 
dominant  thought  more  certainly  and  insistently  than  an  isolated 
topic   sentence.     Further   scrutiny   reveals   the    subsidiary   in- 
sistence  on   vanity    (2);     exclusiveness,   plume,   distinction,   etc.; 
serious  (2).     This  harping  on  one  string  creates  an  impression  of 
earnestness   and   the   deliberateness   that    arises   from   mature 
reflexion;   if  continued,  it  appears  pedantical.     In  beginning,  it 
fixes  a  topic  in  the  reader's  mind ;  in  closing  it  leaves  a  dominant 
impression.     Arnold  made  this  trick  of  style  distinctively  his. 
The  whole  essay  on  Sweetness  and  Light  thus  gains  effectiveness. 

Notice  in  the  first  and  last  sentences  the  annoying  alliteration 
(m,  n),  and  in  the  second  the  weak  verbs.  Should  the  para- 
graph end  with  curiosity? 

In  imitating,  if  you  use  many  words,  repeat  less  often.  Allitera- 
tion, as  in  culture,  curiosity,  should  not  be  overdone. 

19.  The    paragraph    sign    indicates    logical    major    divisions. 
Cogent  (V  B)  and  penetrating  (V  A)  in  tenor,  it  is  so  brief  (III  A) 
as  to  constitute  mere  headings  for  further  development.     Em- 
phatic from  successive  detached  short  sentences  (III  B,  IV  C) 
and  antithesis  (III  B).     Entirely  impersonal  (III  D).     Example 
of  the  dogmatic. 


55 

chief  use  for  pastimes  is  in  privateness  and  retiring;  for  orna- 
ments in  discourse ;  and  for  ability  in  judgment ;  for  expert  men 
can  execute,  but  learned  men  are  more  fit  to  judge  and  censure. 
1[To  spend  too  much  time  in  them  is  sloth;  to  use  them  too  much 
for  ornament  is  affectation;  to  make  judgment  wholly  by  their 
rules  is  the  humor  of  a  scholar;  they  perfect  nature,  and  are 
themselves  perfected  by  experience;  crafty  men  contemn  them, 
wise  men  use  them,  simple  men  admire  them;  for  they  teach  not 
their  use,  but  that  there  is  a  wisdom  without  them  and  above 
them  won  by  observation.  1f  Read  not  to  contradict  nor  to  believe, 
but  to  weigh  and  consider.  Some  books  are  to  be  tasted,  others 
to  be  swallowed,  and  some  few  to  be  chewed  and  digested :  that 
is,  some  are  to  be  read  only  in  parts,  others  to  be  read  but 
curiously,  and  some  few  to  be  read  wholly  with  diligence  and 
attention.  TfReading  maketh  a  full  man,  conference  a  ready,  and 
writing  an  exact  man;  therefore,  if  a  man  write  little,  he  had 
need  of  a  great  memory;  if  he  confer  little,  he  had  need  of  a 
present  wit;  and  if  he  read  little,  he  had  need  have  much  cunning 
to  seem  to  know  that  he  doth  not  know.  ^[ Histories  make  wise 
men;  poets  witty;  the  mathematics  subtle;  natural  philosophy 
deep;  moral  grave;  logic  and  rhetoric  able  to  contend. 

BACON  (6),  Of  Studies,  1597  version. 

20.   Coherence  indicated  by  conjunctions  (IB  2  a  /).— 

Satire  is  a  sort  of  glass,  wherein  beholders  do  generally  discover 
everybody's  face  but  their  own;  which  is  the  chief  reason  for 
that  kind  reception  it  meets  with  in  the  world,  and  that  so  very 
few  are  offended  with  it.  But,  if  it  should  happen  otherwise, 
the  danger  is  not  great;  and  I  have  learned,  from  long  experience, 
never  to  apprehend  mischief  from  those  understandings  I  have 
been  able  to  provoke;  for  anger  and  fury,  though  they  add 
strength  to  the  sinews  of  the  body,  yet  are  found  to  relax  those 
of  the  mind,  and  to  render  all  its  efforts  feeble  and  impotent. 

SWIFT  (13),  Preface  to  The  Battle  of  the  Books. 

20.  Example  of  dry  (III  D)  and  cynical  (V  A)  wit  (V  B).  Note 
the  absence  of  focal  topic  statement  (I  B  i :  it  is  safe  to  satirize) 
and  the  development  by  alternatives  (I  A  i  b). 


56 

21.  Coherence  indicated  by  the  personal  pronoun  (IB  2  a  2  a).— 
Scott  went  out  with  his  pencil  and  note-book,  and  jotted  down 

whatever  struck  him  most  —  a  river  rippling  over  the  sands,  a 
ruined  tower  on  a  rock  above  it,  a  promontory,  and  a  mountain- 
ash  waving  its  red  berries.  He  went  home  and  wove  the  whole 
together  into  a  poetical  description.  He  should  have  left  his 
pencil  and  note-book  at  home,  fixed  his  eye  as  he  walked  with  a 
reverent  attention  on  all  that  surrounded  him,  and  taken  all 
into  a  heart  that  could  understand  and  enjoy.  Then,  after 
several  days  had  passed  by,  he  should  have  interrogated  his 
memory  as  to  the  scene.  He  would  have  discovered  that  while 
much  of  what  he  had  admired  was  preserved  to  him,  much  was 
also  most  wisely  obliterated ;  that  which  remained  —  the  picture 
surviving  in  his  mind  —  would  have  presented  the  ideal  and 
essential  truth  of  the  scene,  and  done  so  in  a  large  part  by  discard- 
ing much  which,  though  in  itself  striking,  was  not  characteristic. 
In  every  scene  many  of  the  most  brilliant  details  are  but  acci- 
dental; a  true  eye  for  Nature  does  not  note  them,  or  at  least 
does  not  dwell  on  them. 

WORDSWORTH  (24). 

22.  Coherence  indicated  by  demonstrative  pronouns  (I  B  2  a  2  b). 
We  view  the  establishment  of  the  English  colonies  on  princi- 
ples of  liberty  as  THAT  which  is  to  render  this  kingdom  venerable 
to  future  ages.     In  comparison  of  THIS  we  regard  all  the  victories 
and  conquests  of  our  warlike  ancestors,  or  of  our  own  times,  as 
barbarous,  vulgar  distinctions,  in  which  many  nations,  whom  we 
look  upon  with  little  respect  or  value,  have  equalled  if  not  ex- 
ceeded  us.     THIS   is   the   peculiar   and   appropriated   glory   of 


21.  Clearly  divisible  in  two  paragraphs;    what  Scott  did  and 
what  he  should  have  done.     Their  disproportion  makes  a  single 
paragraph  more  comely  (IB  i).     Example  of  plain  (III  C)  re- 
flective   (VA)    style,    interesting    because    informative    (V  B). 
Development  by  contrast  (I  A  i  b) . 

22.  Notice  the  personal  pronoun  and  echo  of  England.     The 
pairs  in  sentences  two  and  four  are  excessive.     So  too  the  adj.  + 
noun  of  the  last  sentence.     Example  of  earnest  (III  D)  ideality 
(V  A)  and  elevation  (V  B).     See  Vices  of  Style,  p.  118. 


57 

England.  THOSE  who  have  and  who  hold  to  THAT  foundation  of 
common  liberty,  whether  on  this  or  on  your  side  of  the  ocean, 
we  consider  as  the  true,  and  the  only  true,  Englishmen.  THOSE 
who  depart  from  it,  whether  there  or  here,  are  attainted,  cor- 
rupted in  blood,  and  wholly  fallen  from  their  original  rank  and 
value.  They  are  the  real  rebels  to  the  fair  constitution  and  just 
supremacy  of  England. 
BURKE  (20),  Address  to  the  British  Colonists  in  North  America. 

23.   Coherence  made  clear  by  the  echo  (I  B  2  b  i).— 

The  FIRE  in  the  open  air  is  indeed  a  joy  perpetual,  and  there 
is  no  surer  way  of  renewing  one's  youth  than  by  kindling  and 
tending  it,  whether  it  be  a  rubbish  FIRE  for  potatoes,  or  an 
aromatic  offering  of  pine  spindles  and  fir  cones,  or  the  scientific 
structure  of  the  GIPSY  to  heat  a  tripod-swung  kettle.  The 
GIPSY'S  FIRE  is  a  work  of  art.  "Two  short  STICKS  were  stuck  in 
the  ground,  and  a  third  across  to  them  like  a  triangle.  Against 
this  frame  a  number  of  the  smallest  and  driest  STICK  were  leaned, 
so  that  they  made  a  tiny  hut.  Outside  these  there  was  a  second 
layer  of  longer  STICKS,  all  standing  or  rather  leaning,  against  the 
first.  If  a  STICK  is  placed  across,  lying  horizontally,  supposing 
it  catches  FIRE,  it  just  burns  through  the  middle  and  that  is  all, 
the  ends  go  out.  If  it  is  stood  nearly  upright,  the  flame  draws 
up  to  it;  it  is  certain  to  catch,  burns  longer,  and  leaves  a  good 
ember."  So  wrote  one  who  knew  —  Richard  Jefferies,  in  Bevis, 
that  epic  of  boyhood.  Having  built  the  FIRE,  the  next  thing  is 
to  LIGHT  it.  An  old  GIPSY  woman  can  LIGHT  a  FIRE  in  a  gale, 
just  as  a  sailor  can  always  LIGHT  his  pipe,  even  in  the  cave  of 
^Eolus;  but  the  amateur  is  less  dexterous.  The  smoke  of  the 
open-air  FIRE  is  charged  with  memory.  One  whiff  of  it,  and  for  a 
swift  moment  we  are  in  sympathy  with  our  remotest  ancestors, 
and  all  that  is  elemental  and  primitive  in  us  is  awakened. 

LUCAS  (50)  Fires. 

23.  Notice  how  renewing  one's  youth  of  the  first  sentences  is 
echoed  in  the  last.  Example  of  appeal  through  picturesqueness 
(VB),  of  casual  sequence  and  tenor  (IV  A,  VA),  concrete 
(III  A)  and  in  popular  words  (II  B).  Development  by  details 
(I  A  i  b).  Sensuousness  (V  A),  and  optimism  (V  A). 


58 

24.  Coherence  clear  from  continuity  of  the  grammatical  subject 

(IB   2Cl).— 

There  is  a  chaunt  in  the  recitation  both  of  Coleridge  and  Words- 
worth, which  acts  as  a  spell  upon  the  hearer,  and  disarms  the 
judgment.  Perhaps  they  have  deceived  themselves  by  making 
habitual  use  of  this  ambiguous  accompaniment.  Coleridge's 
manner  is  more  full,  animated,  and  varied;  Wordsworth's  more 
equable,  sustained,  and  internal.  The  one  might  be  termed 
more  dramatic,  the  other  more  lyrical.  Coleridge  has  told  me 
that  he  himself  liked  to  compose  in  walking  over  uneven  ground, 
or  breaking  through  the  straggling  branches  of  a  copse  wood; 
whereas  Wordsworth  always  wrote  (if  he  could)  walking  up  or 
down  a  straight  gravel  walk,  or  in  some  spot  where  the  continuity 
of  his  verse  met  with  no  collateral  interruption. 

HAZLITT  (27),  My  First  Acquaintance  with  Poets. 

25.  Coherence  clear  from  parallel  construction  (IB  2  c  2).— 
There  are  men  who,  when  in  difficulties,   originate  at  the 

moment  vast  ideas  or  dazzling  projects;  who,  under  the  influence 
of  excitement,  are  able  to  cast  a  light,  almost  as  if  from  inspira- 
tion, on  a  subject  or  course  of  action  which  comes  before  them; 
who  have  a  sudden  presence  of  mind  equal  to  any  emergency, 
rising  with  the  occasion,  and  an  undaunted  magnanimous  bearing^ 
and  an  energy  and  keenness  which  is  but  made  intense  by  opposi- 
tion. This  is  genius,  this  is  heroism;  it  is  the  exhibition  of  a 
natural  gift,  which  no  culture  can  teach,  at  which  no  Institution 
can  aim;  here,  on  the  contrary,  we  are  concerned,  not  with  mere 
nature,  but  with  training  and  teaching.  That  perfection  of  the 
Intellect,  which  is  the  result  of  Education,  and  its  beau  ideal, 


24.  Note   that   collateral   is   out   of   key    (II  C).     Example   of 
informative   (V  B)   observation   (VA).     Development  by   con- 
trast (I  A  i  b)  with  reflex  movement  (IV  A).     Informal  (III  D). 

25.  The  unity  consists  in  distinguishing  the  possible  from  the 
impossible    in    education.     Example    of    elegant    and    elevated 
(V  B)  style  showing  ideality  and  elan  (V  A).     Texture  polished 
(III  C)  with  emphasis  by  climax  and  restatement  (III  B),  and 
the  rhythm  of  alternating  long  and  short  phrases  (IV  C).     De- 
velopment by  elucidation  and  contrast  (I  A  i  b) . 


59 

to  be  imparted  to  individuals  in  their  respective  measures,  is  the 
clear,  calm,  accurate  vision  and  comprehension  of  all  things, 
as  far  as  the  finite  mind  can  embrace  them,  each  in  its  place,  and 
with  its  own  characteristics  upon  it.  It  is  almost  prophetic 
from  its  knowledge  of  history;  it  is  almost  heart-searching  from 
its  knowledge  of  human  nature;  it  has  almost  supernatural 
charity  from  its  freedom  from  littleness  and  prejudice;  it  has 
almost  the  repose  of  faith,  because  nothing  can  startle  it ;  it  has 
almost  the  beauty  and  harmony  of  heavenly  contemplation,  so 
intimate  is  it  with  the  eternal  order  of  things  and  the  music  of 
the  spheres. 

NEWMAN  (34),  University  Teaching  VI. 

26.   Coherence  by  balance  (IB  2  c  j).— 

Men  in  Great  Place,  are  thrice  Servants:  Servants  of  the 
Soveraigne  or  State;  Servants  of  Fame;  and  Servants  of  Busi- 
nesse.  So  as  they  have  no  Freedome;  neither  in  their  Persons; 
nor  in  their  Actions ;  nor  in  their  Times.  It  is  a  strange  desire, 
to  seeke  Power,  and  to  lose  Libertie;  Or  to  seeke  Power  over 
others,  and  to  loose  Power  over  a  Mans  Selfe.  The  Rising  unto 
Place  is  Laborious ;  And  by  Paines  Men  come  to  greater  Paines ; 
And  it  is  sometimes  base;  And  by  Indignities,  Men  come  to 
Dignities.  The  standing  is  slippery,  and  the  Regresse,  is  either 
a  downefall,  or  at  least  an  Eclipse.  Nay,  retire  Men  cannot, 
when  they  would;  neither  will  they,  when  it  were  Reason:  But 
are  impatient  of  privatenesse,  even  in  Age,  and  Sicknesse,  which 
require  the  Shadow:  Like  old  Townesmen,  that  will  be  still 
sitting  at  their  Street  doore;  though  thereby  they  offer  Age  to 
Scorne. 

BACON  (6),  Of  Great  Place. 

26.  Extremely  terse  (III  A),  antithetical  (III  B)  style,  sustained 
in  its  ornateness  (III  C)  by  the  power  of  the  thought.  Austerity 
of  mood  (VA),  expressed  with  elegance  (V  B)  in  style  coupe 
(IVC).  Development  by  reasons  (I  A  i  b:  against  holding 
public  office),  with  conjunctions  and  parallel  construction  to 
clarify  the  coherence  (IB  2).  Impersonal  (III  D).  Note  the 
expressiveness  gained  by  use  of  antonyms  (II  B). 


6o 

27.  Coherence  shown  by  sentence  inversion  (IB  204).— 
What  is  important,  then,  is  not  that  the  critic  should  possess 

a  correct  abstract  definition  of  beauty  for  the  intellect,  but  a 
certain  kind  of  temperament,  the  power  of  being  deeply  moved  by 
the  presence  of  beautiful  objects.  He  will  remember  always 
that  beauty  exists  in  many  forms.  To  him  all  periods,  types, 
schools  of  taste,  are  in  themselves  equal.  In  all  ages  there  have 
been  some  excellent  workmen,  and  some  excellent  work  done. 
The  question  he  asks  is  always:  —  In  whom  did  the  stir,  the 
genius,  the  sentiment  of  the  period  find  itself?  where  was  the 
receptacle  of  its  refinement,  its  elevation,  its  taste?  "The  ages 
are  all  equal,"  says  William  Blake,  "but  genius  is  always  above 
its  age." 

PATER  (44),  The  Renaissance,  Preface. 

28.  Expressiveness  through  connotation  (II  B  3).— 

To  those  who  have  looked  at  Rome  with  the  quickening 
power  of  a  knowledge  which  breathes  a  growing  soul  into  all 
historic  shapes,  and  traces  out  the  suppressed  transition  which 
unites  all  contrasts,  Rome  may  still  be  the  spiritual  center  and 
interpreter  of  the  world.  But  let  them  conceive  one  more 
historical  contrast:  the  gigantic  broken  revelations  of  that 
Imperial  and  Papal  city  thrust  abruptly  on  the  notions  of  a  girl 
who  had  been  brought  up  in  English  and  Swiss  Puritanism,  fed 
on  meager  Protestant  histories  and  on  art  chiefly  of  the  hand- 
screen  sort:  a  girl  whose  ardent  nature  turned  all  her  small 
allowance  of  knowledge  into  principles,  fusing  her  actions  into 
their  mould,  and  whose  quick  emotions  gave  the  most  abstract 


27.  Statement  beyond  proof  (equal) ;  but  Pater  was  combatting 
the  other  extreme.     Certain  schools  of  taste  would  admit  scant 
virtue  in  each  other  (See  No.  51).     Elegant  (V  B)  and  temperate 
(VA),  slow  in  movement   (IV  B),  abstract  in  texture   (III  A) 
and  somewhat  obscure  (VA).     Development  by  tracing  results 
(I  A  i  b :  of  this  sense  of  beauty) . 

28.  Comparison  of  Rome  and  Dorothea  to  reveal  interaction 
(I  A  i  b).     Texture    complex    (III  A),    allusive     (III  C)     with 
emphasis  from  concreteness  (III  B) .     Mood  of  reflexion  (V  A)  ex- 
pressed in  style  periodique  (IV  C) .     The  interest  is  personal  (V  A) . 


6i 

things  the  quality  of  a  pleasure  or  a  pain;  a  girl  who  had  lately 
become  a  wife,  and  from,  the  enthusiastic  acceptance  of  untried 
duty  found  herself  plunged  in  tumultuous  preoccupation  with 
her  personal  lot.  The  weight  of  unintelligible  Rome  might  lie 
easily  on  bright  nymphs  to  whom  it  formed  a  background  for 
the  brilliant  picnic  of  Anglo-foreign  society;  but  Dorothea  had 
no  such  defence  against  deep  impressions.  Ruins  and  basilicas, 
palaces  and  collossi,  set  in  the  midst  of  a  sordid  present,  where 
all  that  was  living  and  warm-blooded  seemed  sunk  in  the  deep 
degeneracy  of  a  superstition  divorced  from  reverence ;  the 
dimmer  but  yet  eager  Titanic  life  gazing  and  struggling  on  walls 
and  ceilings;  the  long  vistas  of  white  forms  whose  marble  eyes 
seemed  to  hold  the  monotonous  light  of  an  alien  world:  all  this 
vast  wreck  of  ambitious  ideals,  sensuous  and  spiritual,  mixed 
confusedly  with  the  signs  of  breathing  f orgetfulness  and  degrada- 
tion, at  first  jarred  her  as  with  an  electric  shock,  and  then  urged 
themelves  on  her  with  that  ache  belonging  to  a  glut  of  confused 
ideas  which  check  the  flow  of  emotion.  Forms  both  pale  and 
glowing  took  possession  of  her  young  sense,  and  fixed  themselves 
in  her  memory  even  when  she  was  not  thinking  of  them,  preparing 
strange  associations  which  remained  through  her  after-years. 
Our  moods  are  apt  to  bring  with  them  images  which  succeed 
each  other  like  the  magic-lantern  pictures  of  a  doze;  and  in 
certain  states  of  dull  forlornness  Dorothea  all  her  life  continued 
to  see  the  vastness  of  St.  Peter's,  the  huge  bronze  canopy,  the 
excited  intention  in  the  attitudes  and  garments  of  the  prophets 
and  evangelists  in  the  mosaics  above,  and  the  red  drapery  which 
was  being  hung  for  Christmas  spreading  itself  everywhere  like 
a  disease  of  the  retina. 

GEORGE  ELIOT  (38),  Middlemarch,  II,  xx. 

29.   Expressiveness  of  popular  words  (II  B  3  a).— 

The  memorable  words  of  history,  and  the  proverbs  of  nations, 

29.  Development  by  typical  examples  (I  A  i  b)  with  sequence 
from  random  association  (IV  A).  The  expressiveness  of  popu- 
lar words  is  more  immediately  apparent  in  a  context  of  learned 
words,  as  in  No.  32. 


62 

consist  usually  of  a  natural  fact,  selected  as  a  picture  or  parable 
of  a  moral  truth.  Thus:  A  rolling  stone  gathers  no  moss;  A 
bird  in  the  hand  is  worth  two  in  the  bush ;  A  cripple  in  the  right 
way  will  beat  a  racer  in  the  wrong;  Make  hay  while  the  sun 
shines;  'Tis  hard  to  carry  a  full  cup  even;  Vinegar  is  the  son  of 
wine;  The  last  ounce  broke  the  camel's  back;  Long-lived  trees 
make  roots  first;  and  the  like.  In  their  primary  sense  these  are 
trivial  facts,  but  we  repeat  them  for  the  value  of  their  analogical 
import;  what  is  true  of  proverbs  is  true  of  all  fables,  parables, 
and  allegories. 

EMERSON  (35),  Language. 

30.   Diction  colored  to  prejudice  adversely  (II  C  2  c  2).— 

To  pass  from  theological  and  philosophical  truth  to  the  truth 
of  civil  business;  it  will  be  acknowledged  even  by  those  that 
practice  it  not,  that  clear  and  round  dealing  is  the  honor  of  man's 
nature,  and  that  mixture  of  falsehood  is  like  alloy  in  coin  of  gold 
and  silver,  which  may  make  the  metal  work  the  better,  but  it 
embaseth  it.  For  these  winding  and  crooked  courses  are  the 
goings  of  the  serpent;  which  goeth  basely  upon  the  belly,  and 
not  upon  the  feet.  There  is  no  vice  that  doth  so  cover  a  man 
with  shame  as  to  be  found  false  and  perfidious;  and  therefore 
Montaigne  saith  prettily,  when  he  inquired  the  reason  why  the 
word  of  the  lie  should  be  such  a  disgrace,  and  such  an  odious 
charge,  saith  he,  "If  it  be  well  weighed,  to  say  that  a  man  lieth, 
is  as  much  as  to  say  that  he  is  brave  towards  God,  and  a  coward 
towards  man.  For  a  lie  faces  God,  and  shrinks  from  man"; 
surely  the  wickedness  of  falsehood  and  breach  of  faith  cannot 
possibly  be  so  highly  expressed,  as  in  that  it  shall  be  the  last  peal 
to  call  the  judgments  of  God  upon  the  generations  of  men. 
it  being  foretold,  that,  when  "Christ  cometh,"  he  shall  not 
"find  faith  upon  the  earth." 

BACON  (6),  Of  Truth. 

30.  Clearness  (V  A)  from  alternation  of  idea  words  and  relation 
words  (III  A).  Note  the  transition  in  the  first  sentence.  The 
diction  is  colored  to  prejudice  the  reader  (II  C  3  c).  Movement 
in  style  coupe.  Interest  from  personal  concern  (VB).  Tenor 
purposive  and  deliberate  (V  A) . 


63 

31.  Conciseness  by  general  words  (III  A  i  b).— 

I  have  passed  all  my  days  in  London,  until  I  have  formed  as 
many  and  intense  local  attachments  as  any  of  you  mountaineers 
can  have  done  with  dead  nature.  The  lighted  shops  of  the  Strand 
and  Fleet  Street:  the  innumerable  trades,  tradesmen  and 
customers;  coaches,  waggons,  playhouses:  all  the  bustle  and 
wickedness  round  about  Covent  Garden  :l  the  very  women  of  the 
Town:  the  watchmen,  drunken  scenes,  rattles  —  life  awake,  if 
you  awake,  at  all  hours  of  the  night:  the  impossibility  of  being 
dull  in  Fleet  Street :  the  crowds,  the  very  dirt  and  mud,  the  sun 
shining  upon  houses  and  pavements:  the  print-shops,  the  old- 
book  stalls,  parsons  cheapening  2  books:  coffee-houses,  steams  of 
soups  from  kitchens :  the  pantomimes  —  London  itself  a  panto- 
mime and  a  masquerade:  all  these  things  work  themselves  into 
my  mind,  and  feed  me  without  a  power  of  satiating  me.  The 
wonder  of  these  sights  impels  me  into  night-walks  about  her 
crowded  streets,  and  I  often  shed  tears  in  the  motley  Strand 
from  fulness  of  joy  at  so  much  life. 

LAMB  (26),  Letter  to  Wordsworth,  Jan.  30,  1801. 

32.  Conciseness  by  the  abstract  (III  A  i  c).— 

Because  of  this  radical  correspondence  between  visible  things 
and  human  thoughts,  savages,  who  have  only  what  is  necessary, 
converse  in  figures.  As  we  go  back  in  history,  language  becomes 
more  picturesque,  until  its  infancy,  when  it  is  all  poetry;  or  all 
spiritual  facts  are  represented  by  natural  symbols.  The  same 
symbols  are  found  to  make  the  original  elements  of  all  languages. 
It  has  moreover  been  observed,  that  the  idioms  of  all  languages 
approach  each  other  in  passages  of  the  greatest  eloquence  and 
power.  And  as  this  is  the  first  language,  so  is  it  the  last.  This 
immediate  dependence  of  language  upon  nature,  this  conversion 

31.  Spontaneous  (V  A)  and  natural  (III  C)  with  appeal  through 
picturesqueness  (VB).     Texture  concrete  (III  A)  and  sequence 
by  random   association   (IV  A) .      Development  by  typical   ex- 
amples (I  A  i  b).     Attitude  savoring  of  the  sentimental  (III  D). 

32.  Expansion  by  concrete  illustration  would  render  the  passage 
clearer  and  more  impressive. 


64 

of  an  outward  phenomenon  into  a  type  of  somewhat  in  human 
life,  never  loses  its  power  to  affect  us.  It  is  this  which  gives  that 
piquancy  to  the  conversation  of  a  strong-natured  farmer  or 
backwoodsman,  which  all  men  relish. 

EMERSON  (35),  Language. 

33.  Concreteness  (III  A  i  c).— 

The  inn  was  clean  and  large.  The  kitchen,  with  its  two  box- 
beds  hung  with  clean  check  curtains,  with  its  wide  stone  chimney, 
its  chimney-shelf  four  yards  long  and  garnished  with  lanterns 
and  religious  statuettes,  its  array  of  chests  and  pair  of  ticking 
clocks,  was  the  very  model  of  what  a  kitchen  ought  to  be;  a 
melodrama  kitchen,  suitable  for  bandits  or  noblemen  in  disguise. 
Nor  was  the  scene  disgraced  by  the  landlady,  a  handsome,  silent, 
dark  old  woman,  clothed  and  hooded  in  black  like  a  nun.  Even 
the  public  bedroom  had  a  character  of  its  own,  with  the  long  deal 
tables  and  benches,  where  fifty  might  have  dined,  set  out  as 
for  a  harvest-home,  and  the  three  box-beds  along  the  wall.  In 
one  of  these,  lying  on  straw  and  covered  with  a  pair  of  table- 
napkins,  did  I  do  penance  all  night  long  in  goose-flesh  and  chatter- 
ing teeth,  and  sigh  from  time  to  time  as  I  awakened  for  my 
sheepskin  sack  and  the  lee  of  some  great  wood. 

STEVENSON  (46),  Travels  with  a  Donkey. 

34.  Conciseness  by  implication  (III  A  2  b).— 

The  aesthetic  critic,  then,  regards  all  the  objects  with  which 
he  has  to  do,  all  works  of  art,  and  the  fairer  forms  of  nature  and 
human  life,  as  powers  or  forces  producing  pleasurable  sensations, 
each  of  a  more  or  less  peculiar  or  unique  kind.  This  influence 
he  feels,  and  wishes  to  explain,  analysing  it,  and  reducing  it  to 


33.  Observant  (V  A)  with  appeal  through  picturesqueness  (V  B). 
Development  by  fanciful  details  (I  A  i  b).     Informal  (III  D). 

34.  Example  of  slow  (IV  B)  and  even  (III  B)  impersonal  (III  D) 
elegance   (VB).     Development  by  reasons   (lAib):    why  he 
'wishes    to    explain').     Coherence    and    emphasis    by    echoing 
phrases  (I  B,  III  B).     Notice  the  objectionable  use  of  pairs  and 
triads.     See  Vices  of  Style,  p.  118. 


65 

its  elements.  To  him,  the  picture,  the  landscape,  the  engaging 
personality  in  life  or  in  a  book,  La  Gioconda,1  the  hills  of  Carrara,2 
Pico  of  Mirandola,3  are  valuable  for  their  virtues,  as  we  say,  in 
speaking  of  a  herb,  a  wine,  a  gem;  for  the  property  each  has  of 
affecting  one  with  a  special,  a  unique,  impression  of  pleasure. 
Our  education  becomes  complete  in  proportion  as  our  suscepti- 
bility to  these  impressions  increases  in  depth  and  variety.  And 
the  function  of  the  aesthetic  critic  is  to  distinguish,  analyse,  and 
separate  from  its  adjuncts,  the  virtue  by  which  a  picture,  a 
landscape,  a  fair  personality  in  life  or  in  a  book,  produces  this 
special  impression  of  beauty  or  pleasure,  to  indicate  what  the 
source  of  that  impression  is,  and  under  what  conditions  it  is 
experienced. 

PATER  (44),  The  Renaissance,  Preface. 

35.   Conciseness  through  brevity  (III  A  2  c.)— 

Words  out  of  number,  which  are  now  employed  only  in  a 
figurative  sense,  did  yet  originally  rest  on  some  fact  of  the  out- 
ward world,  vividly  presenting  itself  to  the  imagination;  which 
fact  the  word  has  incorporated  and  knit  up  with  itself  for  ever .... 
'  to  insult '  means  properly  to  leap  as  on  the  prostrate  body  of  a 
foe;  'to  affront'  to  strike  him  on  the  face;  that  'to  succour' 
means  by  running  to  place  oneself  under  one  that  is  falling; 
'to  relent'  (connected  with  'lentus')  to  slacken  the  swiftness  of 
one's  pursuit;  'to  reprehend,'  to  lay  hold  of  one  with  the  inten- 
tion of  forcibly  pulling  him  back;  'to  exonerate,'  to  discharge  of 
a  burden,  ships  being  exonerated  once;  that  'to  be  examined' 
means  to  be  weighed.  They  would  be  pleased  to  learn  that  a 
man  is  called  'supercilious,'  because  haughtiness  with  contempt 
for  others  expresses  itself  by  the  raising  of  the  eyebrows  or 
'supercilium';  that  'subtle'  (subtilis  for  subtexilis)  is  literally 
'fine-spun';  that  'astonished'  (attonitus)  is  properly  thunder- 
struck ;  that  '  sincere '  is  without  wax  (sine  cera) ,  as  the  best  and 
finest  honey  should  be;  that  a  'companion,'  probably  at  least,  is 

35.  Example  of  many  topics  not  carried  into  details  with  re- 
sulting obscurity  (V  B).  Highly  informative  (V  B).  Such  pas- 
sages are  to  be  studied,  not  read. 


66 

one  with  whom  we  share  our  bread,  a  messmate ;  that  a  '  sarcasm ' 

is  properly  such  a  lash  inflicted  by  the  '  scourge  of  the  tongue '  as 

brings  away  the  flesh  after  it, —  with  much  more  in  the  same  kind. 

TRENCH  (41),  Study  of  Words  (1888),  p.  321-2. 

36.  Details  treated  spaciously  (III  A  2  c).— 

One  or  two  examples  more  of  the  perishing  of  the  old  life  in  a 
word,  and  the  birth  of  a  new  in  its  stead,  may  be  added.  The  old 
name  of  Athens,  'AOyvcu,  was  closely  linked  with  the  fact  that 
the  goddess  Pallas  Athene  was  the  guardian  deity  of  the  city. 
The  reason  of  the  name,  with  other  facts  of  the  old  mythology, 
faded  away  from  the  memory  of  the  peasantry  of  modern  Greece ; 
but  Athens  is  a  name  which  must  still  mean  something  for  them. 
Accordingly  it  is  not  'Afloat  now,  but  'A.v8rjvai,  or  the  Bloom- 
ing, on  the  lips  of  the  peasantry  round  about;  so  Mr.  Sayce 
assures  us.  The  same  process  everywhere  meets  us.  Thus 
no  one  who  has  visited  Lucerne  can  fail  to  remember  the 
rugged  mountain  called  'Pilatus'  or  'Mont  Pilate,'  which  stands 
opposite  to  him;  while  if  he  has  been  among  the  few  who  have 
cared  to  climb  it,  he  will  have  been  shown  by  his  guide  the  lake 
at  its  summit  in  which  Pontius  Pilate  in  his  despair  drowned 
himself,  with  an  assurance  that  from  this  suicide  of  his  the 
mountain  obtained  its  name.  Nothing  of  the  kind.  'Mont 
Pilate'  stands  for  'Mons  PileatusJ  'the  capped  hill';  the  clouds, 
as  one  so  often  sees,  gathering  round  its  summit,  and  forming 
the  shape  or  appearance  of  a  cap  or  hat. 

TRENCH  (41),  Study  of  Words  (1888),  p.  67. 

37.  Tautology  (III  A  2  c).— 

What  condign  graces  and  thanks  ought  men  to  give  to  the 

36.  Example  of  a  few  headings  fully  developed  with  resulting 
clearness  (V  B) .     Interspersing  of  short  sentences  (IV  C) . 

37.  Example  of  copia  verborum,  patent  despite  its  complexity 
(III  A)  —staid  (III  D),  ornate  (III  C),  and  Latinized  (III  E). 
Deliberate  and  matter-of-fact  (V  A),  it  moves  slowly  and  ponder- 
ously   (IVB&C),    yet   attracts   by   its   oddity,    cogency,    and 
naivete  (VB). 


67 

writers  of  histories,  who  with  their  great  labours  have  done  so 
much  profit  to  the  human  life.  They  shew,  open,  manifest  and 
declare  to  the  reader  by  example  of  old  antiquity,  what  we  should 
enquire,  desire  and  follow,  and  also  what  we  should  eschew, 
avoid  and  utterly  fly;  for  when  we  (being  unexpert  of  chances) 
see,  behold  and  read  the  ancient  acts,  gests  and  deeds,  how  and 
with  what  labours,  dangers  and  perils  they  were  gested  and  done, 
they  right  greatly  admonished,  ensign  and  teach  us  how  we  may 
lead  forth  our  lives :  and  farther,  he  that  hath  the  perfect  knowl- 
edge of  others'  joy,  wealth  and  high  prosperity,  and  also  trouble, 
sorrow  and  great  adversity,  hath  the  expert  doctrine  of  all  perils. 
And  albeit  that  mortal  folk  are  marvellously  separated  both  by 
land  and  water,  and  right  wondrously  situate,  yet  are  they  and 
their  acts  (done  peradventure  by  the  space  of  a  thousand  year) 
compact  together  by  the  histographier,1  as  it  were  the  deeds  of 
one  self  city  and  in  one  man's  life:  wherefore  I  say  that  history 
may  well  be  called  a  divine  providence;  for  as  the  celestial 
bodies  above  complect 2  all  and  at  every  time  the  universal 
world,  the  creatures  therein  contained  and  all  their  deeds, 
semblably  so  doth  history. 

BERNERS  (2),  Translation  of  Froissart,  Preface. 

38.   Diffuseness  through  repetitiveness  (III  A  2  c).— 

....  God  hath  had  ever  and  ever  shall  have  some  church 
visible  upon  earth.  When  the  people  of  God  worshipped  the 
calfe  in  the  wildernes;  when  they  adored  the  brasen  serpent; 
when  they  served  the  Gods  of  nations;  when  they  bowed  their 
knees  to  Baall;  when  they  burnt  incense  and  offered  sacrifice 
unto  idoles;  true  it  is,  the  wrath  of  God  was  most  fiercelye  in- 
flamed against  them,  their  prophetes  justlie  condemned  them, 
as  an  adulterous  seede  and  a  wicked  generation  of  miscreantes, 
which  had  forsaken  the  living  God,  and  of  him  were  likewise 
forsaken,  in  respect  of  that  singular  mercie  wherewith  he  kindlie 
and  lovinglie  embrace th  his  faithful  children.  Howbeit  retein- 

38.  Austere  (V  A)  and  formal  (III  D)  style,  with  stately  move- 
ment (IVB).  Texture  ornate  (III  C).  Notice  how  the  words 
are  colored  for  prejudicial  effect  (II  C  2  c). 


68 

ing  the  law  of  God  and  the  holie  seale  of  his  covenant,  the  sheepe 
of  his  visible  flocke  they  continued  even  in  the  depth  of  their 
disobedience  and  rebellion.  Wherefore  not  onelie  amongst 
them  God  alwaies  had  his  church,  because  he  had  thousands 
which  never  bowed  their  knees  to  Baall;  but  whose  knees  were 
bowed  unto  Baall,  even  they  were  also  of  the  visible  church  of 
God.... 

HOOKER  (5),  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  iii. 

39.   Emphasis  by  antithesis  (III  B  2  b).— - 

Beauty  deprived  of  its  proper  foils  and  adjuncts  ceases  to  be 
enjoyed  as  beauty,  just  as  light  deprived  of  all  shadow  ceases 
to  be  enjoyed  as  light.  A  white  canvas  cannot  produce  an  effect 
of  sunshine;  the  painter  must  darken  it  in  some  places  before 
he  can  make  it  look  luminous  in  others ;  nor  can  an  uninterrupted 
succession  of  beauty  produce  the  true  effect  of  beauty;  it  must 
be  foiled  by  inferiority  before  its  own  power  can  be  developed. 
Nature  has  for  the  most  part  mingled  her  inferior  and  noble 
elements  as  she  mingles  sunshine  with  shade,  giving  due  use  and 
influence  to  both,  and  the  painter  who  chooses  to  remove  the 
shadow,  perishes  in  the  burning  desert  he  has  created.  The 
truly  high  and  beautiful  art  of  Angelico  l  is  continually  refreshed 
and  strengthened  by  his  frank  portraiture  of  the  most  ordinary 
features  of  his  brother  monks  and  of  the  recorded  peculiarities  of 
ungainly  sanctity;  but  the  modern  German  and  Raphaelesque 
schools  lose  all  honor  and  nobleness  in  barber-like  admiration 
of  handsome  faces,  and  have,  in  fact,  no  real  faith  except  in 
straight  noses,  and  curled  hair.  Paul  Veronese  2  opposes  the 
dwarf  to  the  soldier,  and  the  negress  to  the  queen;  Shakespeare 
places  Caliban  beside  Miranda,  and  Autolycus  beside  Perdita; 
but  the  vulgar  idealist  withdraws  his  beauty  to  the  safety  of  the 
saloon,  and  his  innocence  to  the  seclusion  of  the  cloister;  he 
pretends  that  he  does  this  in  delicacy  of  choice  and  purity  of 


39.  Allusive  texture  (III  C),  and  reflex  movement  (IV  A),  the 
development  carrying  one  back  again  and  again  to  the  topic 
sentence. 


69 

sentiment,  while  in  truth  he  has  neither  courage  to  front  the 
monster,  nor  wit  enough  to  furnish  the  knave. 

RUSKIN  (40). 

40.  Emphasis  by  challenge  (III  B  2  c).— 

Take  the  instance  of  the  painter  or  the  sculptor;  he  has  a 
conception  in  his  mind  which  he  wishes  to  represent  in  the 
medium  of  his  art ;  —  the  Madonna  and  Child,  or  Innocence,  or 
Fortitude,  or  some  historical  character  or  event.  Do  you  mean 
to  say  he  does  not  study  his  subject?  does  he  not  make  sketches? 
does  he  not  even  call  them  "studies"?  does  he  not  call  his  work- 
room a  studio?  is  he  not  ever  designing,  rejecting,  adopting, 
correcting,  perfecting?  Are  not  the  first  attempts  of  Michael 
Angelo  and  Raffaelle  extant,  in  the  case  of  some  of  their  most 
celebrated  compositions?  Will  any  one  say  that  the  Apollo 
Belvidere  is  not  a  conception  patiently  elaborated  into  its  proper 
perfection?  These  departments  of  taste  are,  according  to  the 
received  notions  of  the  world,  the  very  province  of  genius,  and 
yet  we  call  them  arts;  they  are  the  " Fine  Arts."  Why  may  not 
that  be  true  of  literary  composition  which  is  true  of  painting, 
sculpture,  architecture,  and  music?  Why  may  not  language  be 
wrought  as  well  as  the  clay  of  the  modeller?  why  may  not  words 
be  worked  up  as  well  as  colours?  why  should  not  skill  in  diction 
be  simply  subservient  and  instrumental  to  the  great  prototypal 
ideas  which  are  the  contemplation  of  a  Plato  or  a  Virgil? 

NEWMAN  (34),  University  Subjects  II,  Literature  6. 

41.  Emphasis  by  echo  (III  B  3  a).— 

As  to  the  range  of  UNIVERSITY  teaching,  certainly  the  very 
name  of  UNIVERSITY  is  inconsistent  with  restrictions  of  any  kind. 
Whatever  was  the  original  reason  of  the  adoption  of  that  term,, 
which  is  unknown,  I  am  only  putting  on  it  its  popular,  its  recog- 

40.  Emphasis  also  from  short  sentences  in  succession  (III  B),. 
i.  e.  style  coupe  (IV  C).     Tenor  nervous  (V  A)  and  cogent  (V  B). 
Development  by  reasons  (I  A  i  b). 

41.  Repetition  overdone  to  gain  cogency  (V  B).     Use  of  primary 
sense  of  a  word  (II  B:    university). 


70 

nized  sense,  when  I  say  that  a  UNIVERSITY  should  teach  UNIVER- 
SAL knowledge.  That  there  is  a  real  necessity  for  this  UNIVERSAL 
teaching  in  the  highest  schools  of  intellect,  I  will  show  by-and-by ; 
here  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  such  UNIVERSALITY  is  considered 
by  writers  on  the  subject  to  be  the  very  characteristic  of  a  UNI- 
VERSITY, as  contrasted  with  other  seats  of  learning.  Thus 
Johnson,  in  his  Dictionary,  defines  it  to  be  "a  school,  where 
all  arts  and  faculties  are  taught;"  and  Mosheim,1  writing  as  an 
historian,  says  that,  before  the  rise  of  the  UNIVERSITY  of  Paris, — 
for  instance,  at  Padua,  or  Salamanca,  or  Cologne, —  "the  whole 
circle  of  sciences  then  known  was  not  taught;"  but  that  the 
school  of  Paris,  "  which  exceeded  all  others  in  various  respects, 
as  well  as  in  the  number  of  teachers  and  students,  was  the  first 
to  embrace  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  therefore  first  became 
a  UNIVERSITY." 

NEWMAN  (34),  University  Teaching  I. 

42.   Emphasis  by  concrete  detail  (III  B  4  a).— 

Even  with  the  most  selfish  disposition,  the  Vanity-fairian,  as 
he  witnesses  this  sordid  part  of  the  obsequies  of  a  departed 
friend,  can't  but  feel  some  sympathies  and  regret.  My  Lord 
Dives's  remains  are  in  the  family  vault:  the  statuaries  are  cut- 
ting an  inscription  veraciously  commemorating  his  virtues,  and 
the  sorrows  of  his  heir,  who  is  disposing  of  his  goods.  What 
guest  at  Dives's  table  can  pass  the  familiar  house  without  a 
sigh?  —  the  familiar  house  of  which  the  lights  used  to  shine  so 
cheerfully  at  seven  o'clock,  of  which  the  hall  doors  opened  so 
readily,  of  which  the  obsequious  servants,  as  you  passed  up  the 
comfortable  stair,  sounded  your  name  from  landing  to  landing, 
until  it  reached  the  apartment  where  jolly  old  Dives  welcomed 
his  friends!  What  a  number  of  them  he  had;  and  what  a 
noble  way  of  entertaining  them.  How  witty  people  used  to  be 
here  who  were  morose  when  they  got  out  of  the  door;  and  how 
courteous  and  friendly  men  who  slandered  and  hated  each 

42.  Example  of  the  vivacious  (III  D)  and  picturesque  (V  B)  of 
cynical  mood  (VA).  Movement  varying  (IVB).  Expressive 
from  its  specific 'words  (III  A). 


71 

other  everywhere  else!  He  was  pompous,  but  with  such  a 
cook  what  would  one  not  swallow?  he  was  rather  dull,  perhaps, 
but  would  not  such  wine  make  any  conversation  pleasant?  We 
must  get  some  of  his  Burgundy  at  any  price,  the  mourners  cry 
at  his  club.  "I  got  this  box  at  old  Dives's  sale,"  Pincher  says, 
handing  it  round,  "one  of  Louis  XV.'s  mistresses  —  pretty 
thing,  is  it  not?  —  sweet  miniature,"  and  they  talk  of  the  way  in 
which  young  Dives  is  dissipating  his  fortune. 

How  changed  the  house  is,  though!  The  front  is  patched  over 
with  bills,  setting  forth  the  particulars  of  the  furniture  in  staring 
capitals.  They  have  hung  a  shred  of  carpet  out  of  an  up  stairs 
window  —  a  half  dozen  of  porters  are  lounging  on  the  dirty 
steps  —  the  hall  swarms  with  dingy  guests  of  oriental  counte- 
nance, who  thrust  printed  cards  into  your  hand,  and  offer  to  bid. 
Old  women  and  amateurs  have  invaded  the  upper  apartments, 
pinching  the  bed-curtains,  poking  into  the  feathers,  shampooing 
the  mattresses,  and  clapping  the  wardrobe  drawers  to  and  fro. 
Enterprising  young  housekeepers  are  measuring  the  looking- 
glasses  and  hangings  to  see  if  they  will  suit  the  new  menage  — 
(Snob  will  brag  for  years  that  he  has  purchased  this  or  that  at 
Dives's  sale),  and  Mr.  Hammerdown  is  sitting  on  the  great 
mahogany  dining- tables,  in  the  dining-room  below,  waving  the 
ivory  hammer,  and  employing  all  the  artifices  of  eloquence, 
enthusiasm,  entreaty,  reason,  despair;  shouting  to  his  people; 
satirizing  Mr.  Davids  for  his  sluggishness;  inspiriting  Mrs. 
Moss  into  action;  imploring,  commanding,  bellowing,  until 
down  comes  the  hammer  like  fate,  and  we  pass  to  the  next  lot. 
O  Dives,  who  would  ever  have  thought,  as  we  sat  round  the 
broad  table  sparkling  with  plate  and  spotless  linen,  to  have 
seen  such  a  dish  at  the  head  of  it  as  that  roaring  auctioneer? 

THACKERAY  (37),  Vanity  Fair,  Chap.  XVII. 

43.   Emphasis  by  hyperbole  (III  B  4  b).— 

I  protest  to  you,  Gentlemen,  that  if  I  had  to  choose  between  a 
so-called  University,  which  dispensed  with  residence  and  tutorial 


43.    Spontaneity  and   heat    (V  A)   expressed  in  style  periodique 
(IV  C),  and  interesting  from  novelty  and  oddity  (V  B). 


72 

superintendence,  and  gave  its  degrees  to  any  person  who  passed 
an  examination  in  a  wide  range  of  subjects,  and  a  University 
which  had  no  professors  and  examinations  at  all,  but  merely 
brought  a  number  of  young  men  together  for  three  or  four  years, 
and  then  sent  them  away  as  the  University  of  Oxford  is  said  to 
have  done  some  sixty  years  since,  if  I  were  asked  which  of  these 
two  methods  was  the  better  discipline  of  the  intellect, —  mind 
I  do  not  say  which  is  morally  the  better,  for  it  is  plain  that  com- 
pulsory study  must  be  a  good  and  idleness  an  intolerable  mis- 
chief,—  but  if  I  must  determine  which  of  the  two  courses  was 
the  more  successful  in  training,  moulding,  enlarging  the  mind, 
which  sent  out  men  the  more  fitted  for  their  secular  duties, 
which  produced  better  public  men,  men  of  the  world,  men  whose 
names  would  descend  to  posterity,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  giving 
the  preference  to  that  University  which  did  nothing  over  that 
which  exacted  of  its  members  an  acquaintance  with  every  science 
under  the  sun. 

NEWMAN  (34),  Idea  of  a  University. 

44.    Emphasis  by  irony  (III  B  4  c).— 

" Indeed,  sir,"  replied  my  companion,  "you  are  very  little 
acquainted  with  the  English  ladies,  to  think  they  are  old  maids 
against  their  will.  I  dare  venture  to  affirm,  that  you  can  hardly 
select  one  of  them  all  but  has  had  frequent  offers  of  marriage, 
which  either  pride  or  avarice  has  not  made  her  reject.  Instead 
of  thinking  it  a  disgrace,  they  take  every  occasion  to  boast  of 
their  former  cruelty ;  a  soldier  does  not  exult  more  when  he  counts 
over  the  wounds  he  has  received,  than  a  female  veteran  when  she 
relates  the  wounds  she  has  formerly  given :  exhaustless  when  she 
begins  a  narrative  of  the  former  death-dealing  power  of  her  eyes. 
She  tells  of  the  knight  in  gold  lace,  who  died  with  a  single  frown, 
and  never  rose  again  till  —  he  was  married  to  his  maid ;  of  the 
squire,  who  being  cruelly  denied,  in  a  rage  flew  to  the  window, 
and  lifting  up  the  sash,  threw  himself  in  an  agony  —  into  his 
arm  chair;  of  the  parson  who,  crossed  in  love,  resolutely  swal- 

44.  Emphasis  also  by  anticlimax  (III  B:  see  the  dashes). 
Appealing  by  its  humor  (V  B). 


73 

lowed  opium,  which  banished  the  stings  of  despised  love  by  — 
making  him  sleep.     In  short,  she  talks  over  her  former  losses 
with  pleasure,  and,  like  some  tradesmen,  finds  some  consolation 
in  the  many  bankruptcies  she  has  suffered. 

GOLDSMITH  (19),  Old  Maids  and  Bachelors. 

45.  Ornateness  (III  C  2).— 

For  as  the  Bee  that  gathereth  Honny  out  of  the  weede,  when 
she  espyeth  the  faire  flower  flyeth  to  the  sweetest:  or  as  the 
kynde  spanyell  though  he  hunt  after  Byrdes,  yet  forsakes  them 
to  retryue  the  Partridge:  or  as  we  commonly  feede  on  beefe 
hungerly  at  the  first,  yet  seing  the  Quayle  more  dayntie,  chaunge 
our  dyet :  So  I,  although  I  loved  Philautus  for  his  good  properties, 
yet  seing  Euphues  to  excell  him,  I  ought  by  nature  to  lyke  him 
better:  By  so  muche  the  more  therefore  my  change  is  to  be  ex- 
cused, by  how  much  the  more  my  choyce  is  excellent:  and  by  so 
much  the  lesse  I  am  to  be  condemned,  by  how  much  the  more 
Euphues  is  to  be  commended.  Is  not  the  Dyamonde  of  more 
valewe  then  the  Rubie,  because  he  is  of  more  vertue?  Is  not  the 
Emeraulde  preferred  before  the  Saphyre  for  his  wonderfull 
propertie?  Is  not  Euphues  more  prayse  worthy  then  Philautus 
being  more  wittie? 

LYLY  (3),^  Euphues  (Feuillerat)  I,  206. 

46.  Natural  (III  C  2).- 

I  believe  I  can  tell  the  particular  little  chance  which  filled  my 
head  first  with  such  chimes  of  verse  as  have  never  since  left 
ringing  there:  for  I  remember  when  I  began  to  read,  and  take 
some  pleasure  in  it,  there  was  wont  to  lie  in  my  mother's  parlour 
(I  know  not  by  what  accident,  for  she  herself  never  in  her  life 


45.  Notice  the  similes,  alliteration,  balance  (IB  2),  and  rhetorical 
questions    (III  B)  —  all   without    compelling   reason   from   the 
thought.     Example    of    trumpery    (V  A)    interesting    through 
oddity  (VB). 

46.  Apparent  naivete  and  grace  (VB),  of  casual  tenor  (V  A) 
and  informality  (III  D).     Development  by  sequence  of  events 
(I  A  i  b).     Compare  Precept  XXXV. 


74 

read  any  book  but  of  devotion);  but  there  was  wont  to  lie 
Spenser's  works;  this  I  happened  to  fall  upon,  and  was  infinitely 
delighted  with  the  stories  of  the  knights,  and  giants,  and  monsters, 
and  brave  houses,  which  I  found  everywhere  there  (though  my 
understanding  had  little  to  do  with  all  this),  and  by  degrees,  with 
the  tinkling  of  the  rhyme,  and  dance  of  the  numbers;  so  that  I 
think  I  had  read  him  all  over  before  I  was  twelve  years  old,  and 
was  thus  made  a  poet. 

COWLEY    (12). 

47.  Figurative  texture  (III  03).— 

It  is  true  that  if  philosophers  have  suffered,  their  cause  has 
been  amply  avenged.  Extinguished  theologians  lie  about  the 
cradle  of  every  science  as  the  strangled  snakes  beside  that  of 
Hercules;  and  history  records  that  whenever  science  and  ortho- 
doxy have  been  fairly  opposed,  the  latter  has  been  forced  to 
retire  from  the  lists,  bleeding  and  crushed,  if  not  annihilated; 
scotched,  if  not  slain.  But  orthodoxy  is  the  Bourbon  l  of  the 
world  of  thought.  It  learns  not,  neither  can  it  forget;  and 
though  at  present  bewildered  and  afraid  to  move,  it  is  as  willing 
as  ever  to  insist  that  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  contains  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  sound  science,  and  to  visit  with  such 
petty  thunderbolts  as  its  half -paralyzed  hands  can  hurl,  those 
who  refuse  to  degrade  nature  to  the  level  of  primitive  Judaism. 
HUXLEY  (42),  Darwin  on  the  Origin  of  Species. 

48.  Staid  (III  D  i).- 

Of  all  difficulties  which  impede  the  progress  of  thought,  and 
the  formation  of  well-grounded  opinions  on  life  and  social  ar- 
rangements, the  greatest  is  now  the  unspeakable  ignorance 
and  inattention  of  mankind  in  respect  to  the  influences  which 


47.  Elevation  (V  B)  by  forcing  concrete  imagery  (III  B)  and 
colors  of  evil  (II  C  2  c).     Development  by  pro  and  con  (I  A  i  b). 

48.  Development  by  citing  specific  instances   (lAib),  with 
coherence  shown  in  parallel  construction  (I  B  2)  and  emphasis 
by  periodic  sentences   (IIIB:    because).     Fairly  cogent   (VB). 
Use  of  general  words  (III  A). 


75 

form  human  character.  Whatever  any  portion  of  the  human 
species  now  are,  or  seem  to  be,  such,  it  is  supposed,  they  have  a 
natural  tendency  to  be:  even  when  the  most  elementary  knowl- 
edge of  the  circumstances  in  which  they  have  been  placed  clearly 
points  out  the  causes  that  made  them  what  they  are.  Because 
a  cotter  deeply  in  arrears  to  his  landlord  is  not  industrious, 
there  are  people  who  think  that  the  Irish  are  naturally  idle. 
Because  constitutions  can  be  overthrown  when  the  authorities 
appointed  to  execute  them  turn  their  arms  against  them,  there 
are  people  who  think  the  French  incapable  of  free  government. 
Because  the  Greeks  cheated  the  Turks,  and  the  Turks  only 
plundered  the  Greeks,  there  are  persons  who  think  that  the 
Turks  are  naturally  more  sincere:  and  because  women,  as  is 
often  said,  care  nothing  about  politics  except  their  personalities, 
it  is  supposed  that  the  general  good  is  naturally  less  interesting 
to  women  than  to  men.  History,  which  is  now  so  much  better 
understood  than  formerly,  teaches  another  lesson:  if  only  by 
showing  the  extraordinary  susceptibility  of  human  nature  to 
external  influences,  and  the  extreme  variableness  of  those  of  its 
manifestations  which  are  supposed  to  be  most  universal  and 
uniform.  But  in  history,  as  in  traveling,  men  usually  see  only 
what  they  already  have  in  their  own  minds ;  and  few  learn  much 
from  history  who  do  not  bring  much  with  them  to  its  study. 

MILL  (33),  The  Subjection  of  Women. 

49.   Vivacity  (III  D  i).— 

But  if  —  fie  of  such  a  but !  —  you  be  born  so  near  the  dull- 
making  cataract  of  Nilus,1  that  you  cannot  hear  the  planet-like2 
music  of-  poetry ;  if  you  have  so  earth-creeping  a  mind  that  it 
cannot  lift  itself  up  to  look  to  the  sky  of  poetry,  or  rather,  by  a 


49.  Example  of  grace  and  wit  (V  B),  gay  in  tenor  (V  A)  and 
tripping  in  movement  (IV  C).  Clearly  written  and  nervous 
(VA).  Development  by  provisos  (I  A  i  b)  and  coherence  by 
conjunctions  (IB  2).  Texture  allusive  (III  C),  emphasis  by 
periodic  sentences  (III  B).  Sequence  of  suspense  by  curiosity 
(IV  A) .  Notice  that  the  idea  words  are  well  separated  by  re- 
lation words  (III  A). 


76 

certain  rustical  disdain,  will  become  such  a  mome  as  to  be  a 
Momus  3  of  poetry;  then,  though  I  will  not  wish  unto  you  the 
ass's  ears  of  Midas,4  nor  to  be  driven  by  a  poet's  verses,  as 
Bubonax  5  was,  to  hang  himself;  nor  to  be  rimed  to  death,  as  is 
said  to  be  done  in  Ireland;  yet  thus  much  curse  I  must  send 
you  in  behalf  of  all  poets:  —  that  while  you  live  you  live  in  love, 
and  never  get  favor  for  lacking  skill  of  a  sonnet,  and  when  you 
die,  your  memory  die  from  the  earth  for  want  of  an  epitaph. 

SIDNEY  (4),  The  Defense  of  Poesy. 

50.   Informality  (III  D  2).— 

....  I  am  sorry  that  Coleridge  has  christened  his  '  Ancient 
Marinere ' '  a  Poet's  Reverie ' ;  it  is  as  bad  as  Bottom  the  Weaver's 
declaration  that  he  is  not  a  lion,  but  only  the  scenical  representa- 
tion of  a  lion.  What  new  idea  is  gained  by  this  title  but  one 
subversive  of  all  credit  —  which  the  tale  should  force  upon  us, — 
of  its  truth? 

For  me,  I  was  never  so  affected  with  any  human  tale.  After 
first  reading  it,  I  was  totally  possessed  with  it  for  many  days. 
I  dislike  all  the  miraculous  part  of  it,  but  the  feelings  of  the  man 
under  the  operation  of  such  scenery  dragged  me  along  like  Tom 
Piper's  l  magic  whistle.  I  totally  differ  from  your  idea  that  the 
'Marinere'  should  have  had  a  character  and  profession.  This 
is  a  beauty  in  'Gulliver's  Travels,'  where  the  mind  is  kept  in  a 
placid  state  of  little  wonderments ;  but  the  '  Ancient  Marinere  ' 
undergoes  such  trials  as  overwhelm  and  bury  all  individuality 
or  memory  of  what  he  was  —  like  the  state  of  a  man  in  a  bad 
dream,  one  terrible  peculiarity  of  which  is,  that  all  consciousness 
of  personality  is  gone.  Your  other  observation  is,  I  think  as 
well,  a  little  unfounded:  the  'Marinere,'  from  being  conversant 
in  supernatural  events,  has  acquired  a  supernatural  and  strange 
cast  of  phrase,  eye,  appearance,  &c.,  which  frighten  the  'wedding- 
guest.' 

LAMB  (26),  Letter  to  Wordsworth  [November,  1800?] 

50.  Casual  (V  A)  and  outspoken  (III  D)  with  sequence  of  ran- 
dom association  (IV  A).  Interesting  information  (VB).  Ex- 
ample of  penetration  (V  A) . 


77 

51.  Generalized  personality  (III  D  2).— 

The  highest  taste  is  shown  in  habitual  sensibility  to  the  greatest 
beauties;  the  most  general  taste  is  shown  in  a  perception  of  the 
greatest  variety  of  excellence.  Many  people  admire  Milton, 
and  as  many  admire  Pope,  while  there  are  but  few  who  have  any 
relish  for  both.  Almost  all  the  disputes  on  this  subject  arise, 
not  so  much  from  false  as  from  confined  taste.  We  suppose 
that  only  one  thing  can  have  merit;  and  that,  if  we  allow  it  to 
anything  else,  we  deprive  the  favourite  object  of  our  critical 
faith  of  the  honours  due  to  it.  We  are  generally  right  in  what 
we  approve  ourselves,  for  liking  proceeds  from  a  certain  con- 
formity of  objects  to  the  taste;  as  we  are  generally  wrong  in 
condemning  what  others  admire,  for  our  dislike  mostly  proceeds 
from  a  want  of  taste  for  what  pleases  them.  Our  being  totally 
senseless  to  what  excites  extreme  delight  in  those  who  have  as 
good  a  right  to  judge  as  we  have,  in  all  human  probability, 
implies  a  defect  of  faculty  in  us  rather  than  a  limitation  in  the 
resources  of  nature  or  art.  Those  who  are  pleased  with  the 
fewest  things,  know  the  least;  as  those  who  are  pleased  with 
everything,  know  nothing. 

HAZLITT  (27),  Of  Taste. 

52.  Outspoken  (III  D  4).— 

For  my  part,  I  travel  not  to  go  anywhere,  but  to  go.  I  travel 
for  travel's  sake.  The  great  affair  is  to  move;  to  feel  the  needs 
and  hitches  of  our  life  more  nearly ;  to  come  down  off  this  feather- 
bed of  civilization,  and  find  the  globe  granite  underfoot  and 
strewn  with  cutting  flints.  Alas,  as  we  get  up  in  life,  and  are 
more  preoccupied  with  our  affairs,  even  a  holiday  is  a  thing  that 


51.  Use  of  we  to  include  readers  and  author,  not  as  in  editorial 
writing  to  imply  staff  unity.     The  latter  is  formal.     Develop- 
ment by  contrast  (I  A  i  b)  with  emphasis  by  antithesis  (III  B). 
Texture  abstract  (III  A).     Interest  from  personal  concern  (VB). 

52.  Fanciful  (V  A)  and  interesting  by  oddity  (VB).     In  mood 
congenial     (HID)     and    optimistic     (VA).     Texture    natural 
(III  C),    concrete    and    patent    (III  A).     Movement    tripping 
(IV  C). 


78 

must  be  worked  for.  To  hold  a  pack  upon  a  packsaddle  against 
a  gale  out  of  the  freezing  north  is  no  high  industry,  but  it  is  one 
that  serves  to  occupy  and  compose  the  mind.  And  when  the 
present  is  so  exacting,  who  can  annoy  himself  about  the  future? 
STEVENSON  (46),  Travels  with  a  Donkey. 

53.  Semitic  texture  (III  E  i  c).— 

How  was  he  honoured  in  the  midst  of  the  people,  in  his  coming 
out  of  the  sanctuary!  He  was  as  the  morning  star  in  the  midst 
of  a  cloud,  and  as  the  moon  at  the  full;  as  the  sun  shining  upon 
the  temple  of  the  Most  High,  and  as  the  rainbow  giving  light  in 
the  bright  clouds :  and  as  the  flower  of  roses  in  the  spring  of  the 
year,  as  lilies  by  the  rivers  of  waters,  and  as  the  frankincense 
tree  in  summer ;  as  fire  and  incense  in  the  censer,  and  as  a  vessel 
of  gold  set  with  precious  stones;  as  a  fair  olive  tree  budding 
forth  fruit,  and  as  a  cypress  which  groweth  up  to  the  clouds. 
When  he  put  on  the  robe  of  honour,  and  was  clothed  with  the 
perfection  of  glory,  when  he  went  up  to  the  holy  altar,  he  made 
the  garment  of  holiness  honourable.  He  himself  stood  by  the 
hearth  of  the  altar,  compassed  with  his  brethren  round  about; 
as  a  young  cedar  in  Libanus,  and  as  palm  trees  compassed  they 
him  about. 

WISDOM  OF  THE  SON  OF  SIRACH  (translation). 

54.  Pedantry  (III  E  3  b).— 

I  did  sometime  laugh  and  scoff  with  Lucian,1  and  satirically  tax 
with  Menippus,2  lament  with  Heraclitus,3  sometimes  again  I  was 
petulanti  splene  chachinno*  and  then  again,  urere  bilisjecur,5 1  was 
much  moved  to  see  that  abuse  which  I  could  not  mend.  In 


53.  Notice  the  similes  from  the  heavens,  scents,  trees  and  flowers 
as  well  as  the  religious  atmosphere  (III  C).     Quoted  by  Burke  as 
a  specimen  of  magnificence  (V  B).     Texture  concrete  (III  A); 
movement  even  (IV  B).     The  word  compassed  exemplifies  har- 
monious diction  (II  C). 

54.  Of  ponderous  movement  (IV  C),  fanciful  (V  A)  and  interest- 
ing by  oddity   (V  B).     Allusive  finish   (III  C),  attitude  disen- 
gaged (III  D). 


79 

which  passion  howsoever  I  may  sympathize  with  him  or  them, 
'tis  for  no  such  respect  I  shroud  myself  under  his  name;  but 
either  in  an  unknown  habit  to  assume  a  little  more  liberty  and 
freedom  of  speech,  or  if  you  will  needs  know,  for  that  reason  and 
only  respect  which  Hippocrates 6  relates  at  large  in  his  epistle  to 
Damegetus,  wherein  he  doth  express,  how  coming  to  visit  him 
one  day,  he  found  Democritus 7  in  his  garden  at  Abdera,8  in  the 
suburbs,  under  a  shady  bower,  with  a  book  on  his  knees,  busy  at 
his  study,  sometimes  writing,  sometimes  walking.  The  subject 
of  his  book  was  melancholy  and  madness ;  about  him  lay  the  car- 
cases of  many  several  beasts,  newly  by  him  cut  up  and  anato- 
mised; not  that  he  did  contemn  God's  creatures,  as  he  told 
Hippocrates,  but  to  find  out  the  seat  of  this  atra  bilis?  or  melan- 
choly, whence  it  proceeds,  and  how  it  was  engendered  in  men's 
bodies,  to  the  intent  he  might  better  cure  it  in  himself,  and  by  his 
writings  and  observation  teach  others  how  to  prevent  and  avoid 
it.  Which  good  intent  of  his,  Hippocrates  highly  commended: 
Democritus  Junior  is  therefore  bold  to  imitate,  and  because  he 
left  it  imperfect,  and  it  is  now  lost,  quasi  succenturiator 10  Democriti, 
to  revive  again,  prosecute,  and  finish  in  this  treatise. 

BURTON  (8),  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  from  Democritus  to  the 
Reader. 

55.   Jocosity  (HIE  5  a).— 

President  Hadley's  "less  obvious,  but  more  fundamental" 
objection  to  the  suggestion  of  an  additional  college  at  Yale  is, 
we  fear,  reactionary.  "We  want,"  he  asserts,  "a  more  intellec- 
tual atmosphere  among  the  students  as  an  immediate  essential 
for  making  Yale  what  it  should  be."  And  again:  "We  are  not 
offered  anything"  in  the  new  plan  "that  will  give  intellectual 
stimulus."  It  will  strike  persons  of  progressive  leanings  that 
President  'Hadley  is  a  bit  fond  of  the  word  "intellectual."  Even 
a  university,  of  course,  will  not  be  injured  beyond  repair  by  a 
modicum  of  intellectuality.  Some  of  our  colleges,  perhaps 

55.  Example  of  facetious  (V  A)  wit  (VB).  Texture  abstract 
(III  A)  with  emphasis  from  echo  and  irony  (III  B).  Movement 
jerky  (IV  C).  Development  by  pro  and  con  (I  A  i  b). 


8o 

might  be  able  to  stand  more  of  this  element.  But  upon  the 
attitude  of  others,  we  fear,  President  Hadley's  "  intellectual 
stimulus  "  would  have  very  much  the  effect  of  the  introduction  of 
a  foreign  substance  in  the  eye.  There  is  one  standpoint  from 
which  his  policy  is  defensible.  We  have  too  little  respect  for 
relics  in  this  country.  Progress  means  with  us,  not  only  pro- 
ceeding, but  also  obliterating  the  past  as  we  proceed.  For  the 
sake  of  the  museums  of  the  future,  any  university  with  an 
" intellectual  atmosphere"  ought  to  be  preserved.  Of  course, 
if  it  can  be  preserved  alive,  as  President  Hadley  is  so  hopeful  as 
to  think,  by  all  means  let  this  be  done. 

N.  Y.  Nation,  10  Dec.  1915,  p.  678. 

56.   Humor  by  discord  of  subject  and  tone  (III  E  5  a).— 

This  single  stick,  which  you  now  behold  ingloriously  lying  in 
that  neglected  corner,  I  once  knew  in  a  nourishing  state  in  a 
forest;  it  was  full  of  sap,  full  of  leaves,  and  full  of  boughs;  but 
now  in  vain  does  the  busy  art  of  man  pretend  to  vie  with  nature, 
by  tying  that  withered  bundle  of  twigs  to  its  sapless  trunk;  it  is 
now  at  best  but  the  reverse  of  what  it  was,  a  tree  turned  upside 
down,  the  branches  on  the  earth,  and  the  root  in  the  air ;  it  is  now 
handled  by  every  dirty  wench,  condemned  to  do  her  drudgery, 
and,  by  a  capricious  kind  of  fate,  destined  to  make  her  things 
clean,  and  be  nasty  itself;  at  length,  worn  out  to  the  stumps  in 
the  service  of  the  maids,  it  is  either  thrown  out  of  doors,  or  con- 
demned to  the  last  use  of  kindling  a  fire.  When  I  beheld  this, 
I  sighed,  and  said  within  myself :  Surely  mortal  man  is  a  broom- 
stick! nature  sent  him  into  the  world  strong  and  lusty,  in  a 
thriving  condition,  wearing  his  own  hair  on  his  head,  the  proper 
branches  of  this  reasoning  vegetable,  until  the  axe  of  temperance 
has  lopped  off  his  green  boughs,  and  left  him  a  withered  trunk; 
he  then  flies  to  art,  and  puts  on  a  periwig,  valuing  himself  upon 
an  unnatural  bundle  of  hairs,  all  covered  with  powder,  that  never 

56.  Example  of  mock  heroic  humor  (V  B)  with  ironical  assump- 
tion of  emotion  (III  D).  Development  by  tracing  similarity 
(I  A  i  b).  Texture  concrete  (III  A).  Diction  of  popular  words 
(II  B). 


8i 

grew  on  his  head;  but  now  should  this  our  broomstick  pretend 
to  enter  the  scene,  proud  of  those  birchen  spoils  it  never  bore, 
and  all  covered  with  dust,  though  the  sweepings  of  the  finest 
lady's  chamber,  we  should  be  apt  to  ridicule  and  despise  its 
vanity.  Partial  judges  that  we  are  of  our  own  excellences,  and 
other  men's  defaults! 

SWIFT  (13),  Meditation  upon  a  Broomstick. 

57.   Low  style  (III  E  5  c).— 

Ascending  the  hill  are  two  couples  of  a  different  description, 
Daniel  Tubb  and  his  fair  Valentine,  walking  boldly  along  like 
licensed  lovers;  they  have  been  asked  twice  in  church,  and  are  to 
be  married  on  Tuesday;  and  closely  following  that  happy  pair, 
near  each  other  but  not  together,  come  Jem  Tanner  and  Mabel 
Green,  the  poor  culprits  of  the  wheat-hoeing.  Ah!  the  little 
clerk  hath  not  relented !  The  course  of  true  love  doth  not  yet  run 
smooth  in  that  quarter.  Jem  dodges  along,  whistling  "  Cherry- 
ripe,"  pretending  to  walk  by  himself,  and  to  be  thinking  of  no- 
body; but  every  now  and  then  he  pauses  in  his  negligent  saunter, 
and  turns  round  outright  to  steal  a  glance  at  Mabel,  who,  on  her 
part,  is  making  believe  to  walk  with  poor  Olive  Hathaway,  the 
lame  mantua-maker,  and  even  affecting  to  talk  and  to  listen  to 
that  gentle,  humble  creature,  as  she  points  to  the  wild  flowers 
on  the  common,  and  the  lambs  and  children  disporting  amongst 
the  gorse,  but  whose  thought  and  eyes  are  evidently  fixed  on 
Jem  Tanner,  as  she  meets  his  backward  glance  with  a  blushing 
smile,  and  half  springs  forward  to  meet  him:  whilst  Olive  has 
broken  off  the  conversation  as  soon  as  she  perceived  the  pre- 
occupation of  her  companion,  and  begun  humming,  perhaps  un- 
consciously, two  or  three  lines  of  Burns,  whose  "Whistle  and  I'll 
come  to  ye,  my  lad,"  and  "Gi'e  me  a  glance  of  thy  bonny  black 
e'e,"  were  never  better  exemplified  than  in  the  couple  before  her. 
MITFORD  (30),  Our  Village,  "Whitsun  Eve." 

57.  Observation  (V  A)  appealing  by  humor  and  picturesqueness 
(V  B).  Texture  concrete  (III  A)  and  natural  (III  C).  Moder- 
ate rate  of  movement  (IV  B).  Low  is  not  used  in  the  sense  of 
vulgar.  See  SUGGESTIONS,  No.  30. 


82 

58.  Sequence  by  progressive  repetition  (IV  A  i  b)  .— 

The  pursuit  of  perfection,  then,  is  the  pursuit  of  sweetness  and 
light.  He  who  works  for  sweetness  and  light,  works  to  make 
reason  and  the  will  of  God  prevail.  He  who  works  for  machinery, 
he  who  works  for  hatred,  works  only  for  confusion.  Culture 
looks  beyond  machinery,  culture  hates  hatred;  culture  has  one 
great  passion,  the  passion  for  sweetness  and  light.  It  has  one 
even  yet  greater!  —  the  passion  for  making  them  prevail.  It  is 
not  satisfied  till  we  all  come  to  a  perfect  man ;  it  knows  that  the 
sweetness  and  light  of  few  must  be  imperfect  until  the  raw  and 
unkindled  masses  of  humanity  are  touched  with  sweetness  and 
light.  If  I  have  not  shrunk  from  saying  that  we  must  work  for 
sweetness  and  light,  so  neither  have  I  shrunk  from  saying  that 
we  must  have  a  broad  basis,  must  have  sweetness  and  light  for 
as  many  as  possible.  Again  and  again  I  have  insisted  how  those 
are  the  happy  moments  of  humanity,  how  those  are  the  marking 
epochs  of  a  people's  life,  how  those  are  the  flowering  times  for 
literature  and  art  and  all  the  creative  power  of  genius,  when  there 
is  a  national  glow  of  life  and  thought,  when  the  whole  of  society 
is  in  the  fullest  measure  permeated  by  thought,  sensible  to  beauty, 
intelligent  and  alive.  Only  it  must  be  real  thought  and  real 
beauty;  real  sweetness  and  real  light.  . .  . 

ARNOLD  (43),  Sweetness  and  Light. 

59.  Stateliness  (IV  Bi).— 

Concerning  faith  the  principall  object  whereof  is  that  eternall 
veritie  which  hath  discovered  the  treasures  of  hidden  wisedome 

58.  Purposive  and  deliberate  in  tenor  (V  A)  with  cogent  effect 
(V  B).     Attitude  earnest  (III  D)  and  sequence  of  logical  coher- 
ence (IV  A).     Movement  even  (IV  B);    texture  highly  ornate 
(III  C)  from  repetition  (III  B)  and  parallel  construction  (III  B, 
I B  2).     Repetitious  (III  A).     Diction  of  colors  of  good  (II  C  2.— 
Example  of  the  mean  (medium)  style  (III  E  5). 

59.  Example  of  purposive  and  grave  austerity  (V  A),  approach- 
ing sublimity   (VB).     Texture   abstract    (1 1 1  A),   sequence   of 
suspense  by  curiosity  (IV  A)  in  style  periodique  (IV  C,  III  B).— 
Example  of  the  high  style  (III  E  5). —  Notice  that  minor  punctu- 
ation is  omitted  to  reserve  marks  for  the  major  divisions. 


83 

in  Christ;  concerning  hope  the  highest  object  whereof  is  that 
everlasting  goodnes  which  in  Christ  doth  quicken  the  dead; 
concerning  charitie  the  finall  object  whereof  is  that  incompre- 
hensible bewtie  which  shineth  in  the  countenance  of  Christ  the 
sonne  of  the  living  God;  concerning  these  three  virtues,  the  first 
of  which  beginning  here  with  a  weake  apprehension  of  things 
not  sene,  endeth  with  the  intuitive  vision  of  God  in  the  world  to 
come;  the  second  beginning  here  with  a  trembling  expectation  of 
things  far  removed  and  as  yet  but  onely  heard  of,  endeth  with 
reall  and  actuall  fruition  of  that  which  no  tongue  can  expresse; 
the  third  beginning  here  with  a  weake  inclynation  of  heart 
towardes  him  unto  whom  wee  are  not  able  to  aproch,  endeth 
with  endlesse  union,  the  misterie  whereof  is  higher  then  the 
reach  of  the  thoughts  of  men;  concerning  that  faith  hope  and 
charitie  without  which  there  can  be  no  salvation ;  was  there  ever 
any  mention  made  saving  only  in  that  lawe  which  God  him  selfe 
hath  from  heaven  revealed. 

HOOKER  (5),  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  I,  n. 

60.   Varying  movement  (IV  b  2).— 

The  wild  fellow  in  Petronius,1  that  escaped  upon  a  broken  table 
from  the  furies  of  a  shipwreck,  as  he  was  sunning  himself  upon 
the  rocky  shore,  espied  a  man  rolled  upon  his  floating  bed  of 
waves,  ballasted  with  sand  in  the  folds  of  his  garment,  and  carried 
by  his  civil  enemy,  the  sea,  towards  the  shore  to  find  a  grave. 
And  it  cast  him  into  some  sad  thoughts,  that  peradventure  this 
man's  wife,  in  some  part  of  the  continent,  safe  and  warm,  looks 
next  month  for  the  good  man's  return;  or,  it  may  be,  his  son 
knows  nothing  of  the  tempest;  or  his  father  thinks  of  that 
affectionate  kiss  which  still  is  warm  upon  the  good  old  man's 
cheek,  ever  since  he  took  a  kind  farewell,  and  he  weeps  with  joy 
to  think  how  blessed  he  shall  be  when  his  beloved  boy  returns 
into  the  circle  of  his  father's  arms.  These  are  the  thoughts  of 

60.  Example  of  sublimity  (V  B)  appealing  by  its  pathos  and 
interesting  by  its  mystery  (V  B).  Texture  detailed  and  patent 
(III  A)  with  emphasis  from  concreteness  (III  A  &  B).  Rhythm 
of  varied  short  and  long  phrasing  (IV  C) . 


84 

mortals;  this  is  the  end  and  sum.  of  all  their  designs.  A  dark 
night  and  an  ill  guide,  a  boisterous  sea  and  a  broken  cable,  a 
hard  rock  and  a  rough  wind,  dashed  in  pieces  the  fortune  of  a 
whole  family;  and  they  that  shall  weep  loudest  for  the  accident 
are  not  yet  entered  into  the  storm,  and  yet  have  suffered  ship- 
wreck. Then,  looking  upon  the  carcass,  he  knew  it,  and  found 
it  to  be  the  master  of  the  ship,  who,  the  day  before,  cast  up  the 
accounts  of  his  patrimony  and  his  trade,  and  named  the  day 
when  he  thought  to  be  at  home.  See  how  the  man  swims,  who 
was  so  angry  two  days  since!  His  passions  are  becalmed  with 
the  storm,  his  accounts  cast  up,  his  cares  at  an  end,  his  voyage 
done,  and  his  gains  are  the  strange  events  of  death,  which, 
whether  they  be  good  or  evil,  the  men  that  are  alive  seldom 
trouble  themselves  concerning  the  interest  of  the  dead. 

JEREMY  TAYLOR  (n),  On  Death. 

61.   Steadiness  (IV  B  2).— 

Truth  indeed  came  once  into  the  world  with  her  divine  master, 
and  was  a  perfect  shape  most  glorious  to  look  on:  but  when  he 
ascended,  and  his  apostles  after  him  were  laid  asleep,  then  straight 
arose  a  wicked  race  of  deceivers,  who,  as  that  story  goes  of  the 
Egyptian  Typhon l  with  his  conspirators,  how  they  dealt  with  the 
good  Osiris,2  took  the  virgin  Truth,  hewed  her  lovely  form  into  a 
thousand  pieces,  and  scattered  them  to  the  four  winds.  From 
that  time  ever  since,  the  sad  friends  of  Truth,  such  as  durst 
appear,  imitating  the  careful  search  that  Isis 3  made  for  the  man- 
gled body  of  Osiris,  went  up  and  down  gathering  up  limb  by  limb 
still  as  they  could  find  them.  We  have  not  yet  found  them  all, 
lords  and  commons,  nor  ever  shall  do,  till  her  master's  second 
coming;  he  shall  bring  together  every  joint  and  member,  and 


61.  Tenor  of  deliberateness,  ideality,  and  austerity  (V  A),  rising 
to  the  sublime  and  both  appealing  by  its  cadence  and  interesting 
by  its  mystery  (VB).  Texture  allusive  (III  C)  and  attitude 
formal  (HID).  Movement  heavy  (IV  C)  with  sequence  of 
suspense  by  curiosity  (IV  A).  Ornate  (III  C)  and  somewhat 
obscure  in  texture  (V  A). 


85 

shall  mould  them  into  an  immortal  feature  of  loveliness  and 
perfection. 

MILTON  (10),  Areopagitica. 

62.  Movement  varying  gradually  (IV  B  3). — 

Let  us  consider,  too,  how  differently  young  and  old  are 
affected  by  the  words  of  some  classic  author,  such  as  Homer  or 
Horace.  Passages,  which  to  a  boy  are  but  rhetorical  common- 
places, neither  better  nor  worse  than  a  hundred  others  which 
any  clever  writer  might  supply,  which  he  gets  by  heart  and  thinks 
very  fine,  and  imitates,  as  he  thinks,  successfully,  in  his  own 
flowing  versification,  at  length  comes  home  to  him,  when  long 
years  have  passed,  and  he  has  had  experience  of  life,  and  pierce 
him,  as  if  he  had  never  before  known  them,  with  their  sad  earnest- 
ness and  vivid  exactness.  Then  he  comes  to  understand  how 
it  is  that  lines,  the  birth  of  some  chance  morning  or  evening  at  an 
Ionian  festival,  or  among  the  Sabine  hills,  have  lasted  generation 
after  generation,  for  thousands  of  years,  with  a  power  over  the 
mind,  and  a  charm,  which  the  current  literature  of  his  own  day, 
with  all  its  obvious  advantages,  is  utterly  unable  to  rival.  Per- 
haps this  is  the  reason  of  the  medieval  opinion  about  Virgil,  as 
if  a  prophet  or  magician;  his  single  words  and  phrases,  his 
pathetic  half  lines,  giving  utterance,  as  the  voice  of  Nature 
herself,  to  that  pain  and  weariness,  yet  hope  of  better  things, 
which  is  the  experience  of  her  children  in  every  time. 

NEWMAN  (34),  Grammar  of  Assent. 

63.  Style  coupe  (IV  ci).— 

Sombrius  is  one  of  these  men  of  sorrow.  He  thinks  himself 
obliged  in  duty  to  be  sad  and  disconsolate.  He  looks  on  a 


62.  Of  penetrating,  sensuous  tenor  (VA),  pleasing  by  its  ele- 
gance and  cadence  as  well  as  by  personal  concern  (V  B).     Style 
periodique  (IV  C),  with  emphasis  by  pauses  after  phrases  (III  B). 

63.  Example  of  temperate  (V  A)  and  elegant  wit,  appealing  by 
its  grace  and  good  humor   (VB).     Attitude  demure   (HID). 
Movement  abrupt   (IV  B)   and   sequence  of  suspense  by  mild 
curiosity  (IV  A). 


86 

sudden  fit  of  laughter  as  a  breach  of  his  baptismal  vow.  An 
innocent  jest  startles  him  like  blasphemy.  Tell  him  of  one  who 
is  advanced  to  a  title  of  honour,  he  lifts  up  his  hands  and  eyes; 
describe  a  public  ceremony,  he  shakes  his  head;  show  him  a  gay 
equipage,  he  blesses  himself.  All  the  little  ornaments  of  life 
are  pomps  and  vanities.  Mirth  is  wanton,  and  wit  profane.  He 
is  scandalized  at  youth  for  being  lively,  and  at  childhood  for 
being  playful.  He  sits  at  a  christening,  or  a  marriage-feast  as  at 
a  funeral;  sighs  at  the  conclusion  of  a  merry  story,  and  grows 
devout  when  the  rest  of  the  company  grow  pleasant.  After  all, 
Sombrius  is  a  religious  man,  and  would  have  behaved  himself 
very  properly  had  he  lived  when  Christianity  was  under  a  general 
persecution. 

ADDISON  (14),  Spectator,  No.  494. 

64.   Style  periodique  (IV  c  2).— 

In  the  edifice  of  Man  there  should  be  found  reverent  worship 
and  following,  not  only  of  the  spirit  which  rounds  the  pillars  of 
the  forest,  and  arches  the  vault  of  the  avenue  —  which  gives 
veining  to  the  leaf  and  polish  to  the  shell,  and  grace  to  every 
pulse  that  agitates  animal  organization  —  but  of  that  also  which 
reproves  the  pillars  of  the  earth,  and  builds  up  her  barren  preci- 
pices into  the  coldness  of  the  clouds,  and  lifts  her  shadowy  cones 
of  mountain  purple  into  the  pale  arch  of  the  sky;  for  these,  and 
other  glories  more  than  these,  refuse  not  to  connect  themselves, 
in  his  thoughts,  with  the  work  of  his  own  hand;  the  gray  cliff 
loses  not  its  nobleness  when  it  reminds  us  of  some  Cyclopean 
waste  of  mural  stone;  the  pinnacles  of  the  rocky  promontory 
arrange  themselves,  undegraded,  into  fantastic  semblances  of 
fortress  towers,  and  even  the  awful  cone  of  the  far-off  mountain 
has  a  melancholy  mixed  with  that  of  its  own  solitude,  which  is 
cast  from  the  images  of  nameless  tumuli  on  white  sea-shores, 


64.  Example  of  high  style  (III  E  5).  Ideality  and  elan  in  tenor 
(V  A)  resulting  in  sublimity,  picturesqueness,  and  beauty  of 
cadence  (V  B).  Texture  highly  ornate  (III  C),  and  complex 
but  concrete  .(III  A). 


87 

and  of  the  heaps  of  reedy  clay,  into  which  chambered  cities  melt 
in  their  mortality. 

RUSKIN  (40). 

65.   Jerky  movement  (IV  64).— 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  find  ourselves  believing,  we  hardly 
know  how  or  why.  Mr.  Balfour  gives  the  name  of  "authority" 
to  all  those  influences,  born  of  the  intellectual  climate,  that 
make  hypotheses  possible  or  impossible  for  us,  alive  or  dead. 
Here  in  this  room,  we  all  of  us  believe  in  molecules  and  the  con- 
servation of  energy,  in  democracy  and  necessary  progress,  in 
Protestant  Christianity  and  the  duty  of  fighting  for  "the  doctrine 
of  the  immortal  Munroe,"  all  for  no  reasons  worthy  of  the  name. 
We  see  into  these  matters  with  no  more  inner  clearness,  and 
probably  with  much  less,  than  any  disbeliever  in  them  might 
possess.  His  unconventionality  would  probably  have  some 
grounds  to  show  for  its  conclusions;  but  for  us,  not  insight,  but 
the  prestige  of  the  opinions,  is  what  makes  the  spark  shoot  from 
them  and  light  up  our  sleeping  magazines  of  faith.  Our  reason 
is  quite  satisfied,  in  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  cases  out  of 
every  thousand  of  us,  if  it  can  find  a  few  arguments  that  will  do 
to  recite  in  case  our  credulity  is  criticized  by  some  one  else.  Our 
faith  is  faith  in  some  one  else's  faith,  and  in  the  greatest  matters 
this  is  most  the  case.  Our  belief  in  truth  itself,  for  instance, 
that  there  is  a  truth,  and  that  our  minds  and  it  are  made  for  each 
other, —  what  is  it  but  a  passionate  affirmation  of  desire,  in 
which  our  social  system  backs  us  up?  We  want  to  have  a  truth; 
we  want  to  believe  that  our  experiments  and  studies  and  dis- 
cussions must  put  us  in  a  continually  better  and  better  position 
towards  it;  and  on  this  line  we  agree  to  fight  out  our  thinking 
lives.  But  if  a  pyrrhonistic  skeptic  asks  us  how  we  know  all  this, 
can  our  logic  find  a  reply?  No!  certainly  it  cannot.  It  is  just 
one  volition  against  another, —  we  are  willing  to  go  in  for  life 

65.  Example  of  direct  (III  C)  and  outspoken  (III  D)  sincerity 
(VA),  matter-of-fact  in  tenor  (V  A),  interesting  through  per- 
sonal concern  and  gaining  esteem  by  cogency  (V  B).  The  pro- 
noun represents  a  generalized  personality. 


88 

upon  a  trust  or  assumption  which  he,  for  his  part,  does  not  care 
to  make. 

JAMES  (47),  The  Will  to  Believe. 

66.   Alternation  of  long  and  short  (IV  C  3).— 

Had  a  stranger,  at  this  time,  gone  into  the  province  of  Oude,1 
ignorant  of  what  had  happened  since  the  death  of  Sujah  Dowla, 
that  man,  who,  with  a  savage  heart,  had  still  great  lines  of 
character,  and  who,  with  all  his  ferocity  in  war,  had  still,  with  a 
cultivating  hand,  preserved  to  his  country  the  riches  which  it 
derived  from  benignant  skies  and  a  prolific  soil  —  if  this  stranger, 
ignorant  of  all  that  had  happened  in  the  short  interval,  and 
observing  the  wide  and  general  devastation,  and  all  the  horrors 
of  the  scene  —  of  plains  unclothed  and  brown  —  of  vegetables 
burned  up  and  extinguished  —  of  villages  depopulated,  and  in 
ruins  —  of  temples  unroofed  and  perishing  —  of  reservoirs 
broken  down  and  dry, —  he  would  naturally  inquire  what  war 
has  thus  laid  waste  the  fertile  fields  of  this  once  beautiful  and 
opulent  country  —  what  civil  dissensions  have  happened,  thus  to 
tear  asunder  and  separate  the  happy  societies  that  once  possessed 
those  villages  —  what  disputed  succession,  what  religious  rage 
has,  with  unholy  violence,  demolished  those  temples,  and  dis- 
turbed fervent,  but  unobtruding  piety,  in  the  exercise  of  its 
duties?  —  What  merciless  enemy  has  thus  spread  the  horrors 
of  fire  and  sword  —  what  severe  visitation  of  Providence  has 
dried  up  the  fountain,  and  taken  from  the  face  of  the  earth  every 
vestige  of  verdure?  —  Or,  rather,  what  monsters  have  stalked 
over  the  country,  tainting  and  poisoning,  with  pestiferous  breath, 
what  the  voracious  appetite  could  not  devour?  to  such  questions, 
what  must  be  the  answer?  No  wars  have  ravaged  these  lands, 
and  depopulated  these  villages  —  no  civil  discords  have  been 
felt  —  no  disputed  succession  —  no  religious  rage  —  no  merciless 
enemy  —  no  affliction  of  Providence,  which,  while  it  scourged 


66.  Example  of  oratorical  climax  with  further  emphasis  from 
concreteness,  irony,  and  challenge  (III  B).  Finish  ornate 
(IIIC)  and  attitude  emotional  (HID).  Tenor  marked  by 
elan,  with  appeal  by  pathos  and  effect  of  cogency  (V  B). 


89 

for  the  moment,  cut  off  the  sources  of  resuscitation  —  no  vora- 
cious and  poisoning  monsters  —  no,  all  this  has  been  accomplished 
by  the  friendship,  generosity  and  kindness  of  the  English  nation. 

SHERIDAN  (22),  Speech  against  Hastings. 

67.  Reflexion  (V  A  i  a  2]  .— 

You  are,  my  Lord,1  but  just  entering  into  the  world;  I  am 
going  out  of  it.  I  have  played  long  enough  to  be  heartily  tired 
of  the  drama.  Whether  I  have  acted  my  part  in  it  well  or  ill, 
posterity  will  judge  with  more  candour  than  I,  or  than  the  present 
age,  with  our  present  passions,  can  possibly  pretend  to.  For  my 
part,  I  quit  it  without  a  sigh,  and  submit  to  the  sovereign  order 
without  murmuring.  The  nearer  we  approach  to  the  goal  of  life, 
the  better  we  begin  to  understand  the  true  value  of  our  existence, 
and  the  real  weight  of  our  opinions.  We  set  out  much  in  love 
with  both;  but  we  leave  much  behind  us  as  we  advance.  We 
first  throw  away  the  tales  along  with  the  rattles  of  our  nurses; 
those  of  the  priest  keep  their  hold  a  little  longer;  those  of  our 
governors  the  longest  of  all.  But  the  passions  which  prop  these 
opinions  are  withdrawn  one  after  another;  and  the  cool  light  of 
reason,  at  the  setting  of  our  life,  shows  us  what  a  false  splendour 
played  upon  these  objects  during  our  more  sanguine  seasons. 
Happy,  my  Lord,  if,  instructed  by  my  experience,  and  even  by 
my  errors,  you  come  early  to  make  such  an  estimate  of  things, 
as  may  give  freedom  and  ease  to  your  life.  I  am  happy  that 
such  an  estimate  promises  me  comfort  at  my  death. 

BURKE  (20),  A  Vindication  of  Natural  Society. 

68.  Penetration  (V  A  i  b  i).— 

The  presence  [Mona  Lisa] l  that  thus  rose  so  strangely  beside 

67.  Grave  and  sincere  in  tenor  (V  A)  with  the  interest  of  personal 
concern  as  well  as  sublimity  and  pathos  (V  B).     In  movement 
slow  (IV  B);   in  texture  direct  (III  C)  and  outspoken  (III  D). 

68.  Deliberateness  and  sensuousness  in  tenor  (V  A),  fascinating 
by  its  mystery,  appealing  by  its  elegant  picturesqueness,  grace 
and  cadence  (V  B).     Finish  highly  ornate  and  allusive  (III  C). 
Expressive  in  its  specific  words  (III  A)  and  aesthetic  connota- 
tion (II  B). 


go 

the  waters,  is  expressive  of  what  in  the  ways  of  a  thousand  years 
men  had  come  to  desire.  Hers  is  the  head  upon  which  "the  ends 
of  the  world  are  come,"  and  the  eyelids  are  a  little  weary.  It  is 
a  beauty  wrought  out  from  within  upon  the  flesh,  the  deposit, 
little  cell  by  cell,  of  strange  thoughts  and  fantastic  reveries  and 
exquisite  passions.  Set  it'  for  a  moment  beside  one  of  those 
white  Greek  goddesses  or  beautiful  women  of  antiquity,  and  how 
would  they  be  troubled  by  this  beauty,  into  which  the  soul  with 
all  its  maladies  has  passed!  All  the  thoughts  and  experience  of 
the  world  have  etched  and  moulded  there,  in  that  which  they  have 
of  power  to  refine  and  make  expressive  the  outward  form,  the 
animalism  of  Greece,  the  lust  of  Rome,  the  reverie  of  the  middle 
age  with  its  spiritual  ambition  and  imaginative  loves,  the  return 
of  the  Pagan  world,  the  sins  of  the  Borgias.  She  is  older  than 
the  rocks  among  which  she  sits;  like  the  vampire,  she  has  been 
dead  many  times,  and  learned  the  secrets  of  the  grave;  and  has 
been  a  diver  in  deep  seas,  and  keeps  their  fallen  day  about  her; 
and  trafficked  for  strange  webs  with  Eastern  merchants:  and, 
as  Leda,  was  the  mother  of  Helen  of  Troy,  and,  as  Saint  Anne, 
the  mother  of  Mary;  and  all  this  has  been  to  her  but  as  the  sound 
of  lyres  and  flutes,  and  lives  only  in  the  delicacy  with  which  it 
has  moulded  the  changing  lineaments,  and  tinged  the  eyelid 
and  the  hands.  The  fancy  of  a  perpetual  life,  sweeping  together 
ten  thousand  experiences,  is  an  old  one;  and  modern  thought 
has  conceived  the  idea  of  humanity  as  wrought  upon  by,  and 
summing  up  in  itself,  all  modes  of  thought  and  life. 

PATER  (44),  The  Renaissance,  " Leonardo  da  Vinci." 

69.   Observation  (V  A  i  b  2).— 

As  there  is  a  moving  tone  of  voice,  an  impassioned  countenance ,. 
an  agitated  gesture,  which  affect  independently  of  the  things 
about  which  they  are  exerted,  so  there  are  words,  and  certain 
dispositions  of  words,  which  being  peculiarly  devoted  to  passion- 
ate subjects,  and  always  used  by  those  who  are  under  the  in- 
fluence of  any  passion,  touch  and  move  us  more  than  those  which 

69.    Interest  from  being  informative   (VB).     Attitude  imper- 
sonal (III  D).     Excessive  use  of  pairs  (see  Vices  of  Style,  p.  118). 


91 

far  more  clearly  and  distinctly  express  the  subject  matter.  We 
yield  to  sympathy  what  we  refuse  to  description.  The  truth  is, 
all  verbal  description,  merely  as  naked  description,  though  never 
so  exact,  conveys  so  poor  and  insufficient  an  idea  of  the  thing 
described,  that  it  could  scarcely  have  the  smallest  effect,  if  the 
speaker  did  not  call  in  to  his  aid  those  modes  of  speech  that  mark 
a  strong  and  lively  feeling  in  himself.  Then,  by  the  contagion 
of  our  passions,  we  catch  a  fire  already  kindled  in  another,  which 
probably  might  never  have  been  struck  out  by  the  object  de- 
scribed. Words,  by  strongly  conveying  the  passions,  by  those 
means  which  we  have  already  mentioned,  fully  compensate  for 
their  weakness  in  other  respects.  It  may  be  observed,  that  very 
polished  languages,  and  such  as  are  praised  for  their  superior 
clearness  and  perspicuity,  are  generally  deficient  in  strength. 
The  French  language  has  that  perfection  and  that  defect,  whereas- 
the  Oriental  tongues,  and  in  general  the  languages  of  most 
unpolished  people,  have  a  great  force  and  energy  of  expression; 
and  this  is  but  natural.  Uncultivated  people  are  but  ordinary 
observers  of  things,  and  not  critical  in  distinguishing  them;  but,, 
for  that  reason,  they  admire  more,  and  are  more  affected  with 
what  they  see,  and  therefore  express  themselves  in  a  warmer  and 
more  passionate  manner. 

BURKE  (20),  On  the  Sublime  and  the  Beautiful. 

70.   Deliberateness  (VAiC3).— 

I  have  heard  some  with  deep  sighs  lament  the  lost  lines  of 
Cicero;  others  with  as  many  groans  deplore  the  combustion  of 
the  library  of  Alexandria:  for  my  own  part,  I  think  there  be  too 
many  in  the  world;  and  could  with  patience  behold  the  urn  and 
ashes  of  the  Vatican,  could  I,  with  a  few  others,  recover  the 
perished  leaves  of  Solomon.  I  would  not  omit  a  copy  of  Enoch's 
pillars,1  had  they  many  nearer  authors  than  Josephus,2  or  did  not 

70.  Of  fanciful  tenor  (V  A),  captivating  by  its  humor  and  oddity 
(V  B).  Texture  allusive  (III  C)  and  pedantic  (III  E).  Move- 
ment ponderous  (IV  C) .  It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  ponder- 
ous and  Latinized  styles  of  Browne  and  Johnson,  noting  in  the 
latter  the  clarifying  effect  of  the  style  of  Addison. 


92 

relish  somewhat  of  the  fable.  Some  men  have  written  more 
than  others  have  spoken.  Pineda3  quotes  more  authors,  in  one 
work,  than  are  necessary  in  a  whole  world.  Of  those  three  great 
inventions  in  Germany,  there  are  two  which  are  not  without 
their  incommodities.  'Tis  not  a  melancholy  utinam  of  my  own, 
but  the  desires  of  better  heads,  that  there  were  a  general  synod  — 
not  to  unite  the  incompatible  difference  of  religion,  but, —  for 
the  benefit  of  learning,  to  reduce  it,  as  it  lay  at  first,  in  a  few  and 
solid  authors;  and  to  condemn  to  the  fire  those  swarms  and 
millions  of  rhapsodies,  begotten  only  to  distract  and  abuse  the 
weaker  judgments  of  scholars,  and  to  maintain  the  trade  and 
mystery  of  typographers. 

BROWNE  (9),  Religio  Medici,  xxiv. 

71.   Perplexity  (Via  2).— 

Stage  plays  also  carried  me  away,  full  of  images  of  my  miseries, 
and  of  tinder  for  my  flame.  Why  is  it  that  man  desires  to  be 
there  made  sad,  beholding  grievous  and  tragical  things,  which 
yet  himself  would  by  no  means  suffer?  yet  he  desires  as  a  spectator 
to  feel  grief  at  them,  and  this  very  grief  is  his  pleasure.  What  is 
this  but  a  miserable  madness?  for  a  man  is  the  more  affected 
with  these  actions,  the  less  free  he  is  from  such  affections.  How- 
soever, when  he  suffers  in  his  own  person,  it  uses  to  be  styled 
misery;  when  from  sympathy  with  others,  then  it  is  pity.  But 
what  sort  of  pity  is  this  for  the  shams  and  shadows  of  the  stage? 
for  the  auditor  is  not  moved  to  succour,  but  only  asked  to  grieve; 
and  he  applauds  the  actor  of  these  fictions  the  more,  the  more  he 
grieves.  And  if  those  human  misfortunes,  whether  they  be  his- 
tories of  olden  times,  or  mere  fictions,  be  so  acted,  that  the  spec- 
tator is  not  moved  to  grief,  he  goes  away  disdainful  and  censorious ; 
but  if  he  be  moved  to  grief,  he  stays  intent,  and  enjoys  the  tears 
he  sheds. 

ST.  AUGUSTINE,  Confessions,  III,  ii  (translation). 

71.  Of  varied  appeal  from  its  oddity,  grace,  elegance,  and  naivete 
(VB).  Sincere  and  sensuous  in  tenor  (VA2).  Augustine's 
style  is  noted  in  Latin  of  the  later  empire  for  its  exquisite  polish, 
balance,  and  finesse. 


93 

72.  Matter-of-fact-ness  (V  A  i  d  j). — 

Though  Good-humour,  Sense  and  Discretion  can  seldom  fail 
to  make  a  Man  agreeable,  it  may  be  no  ill  Policy  sometimes  to 
prepare  your  self  in  a  particular  manner  for  Conversation,  by 
looking  a  little  farther  than  your  Neighbours  into  whatever  is 
become  a  reigning  Subject.  If  our  Armies  are  besieging  a  Place 
of  Importance  abroad,  or  our  House  of  Commons  debating  a  Bill 
of  Consequence  at  home,  you  can  hardly  fail  of  being  heard  with 
Pleasure,  if  you  have  nicely  informed  your  self  of  the  Strength, 
Situation,  and  History  of  the  first,  or  of  the  Reasons  for  and 
against  the  latter.  It  will  have  the  same  Effect  if  when  any 
single  Person  begins  to  make  a  Noise  in  the  World,  you  can  learn 
some  of  the  smallest  accidents  in  his  Life  or  Conversation,  which 
though  they  are  too  fine  for  the  Observation  of  the  Vulgar,  give 
more  Satisfaction  to  Men  of  Sense  (as  they  are  the  best  Openings 
to  a  real  Character)  than  the  Recital  of  his  most  glaring  Actions. 
I  know  but  one  ill  Consequence  to  be  feared  from  this  Method, 
namely,  that  coming  full  charged  into  Company,  you  should 
resolve  to  unload  whether  an  handsome  Opportunity  offers  it  self 
or  no. 

STEELE  (15),  Jack  Lizard. 

73.  Cynicism  (V  A  d  4).— 

Begin  with  marriage.  Many  married  people  would  be  hap- 
pier and,  perhaps,  more  useful,  if  they  could  separate  at  will. 
Therefore  (the  cry  is),  let  all  men  and  women  be  always  free  to 
live  together  or  apart,  when  they  choose,  and  as  long  as  they 
choose,  without  priests,  registrars,  law  courts,  or  scandal.  Many 
parents  are  unworthy  to  bring  up  their  children.  Therefore, 


72.  Tone    of    nonchalance    (HID)    and    laissez-faire    (VA2), 
interesting  from  personal  concern  and  appealing  in  its  naivete 
(VB).     Texture  patent  (III  A) 

73.  Forcing  attention  by  novelty  (V  B),  abruptness  (III  B),  and 
mannerism  (III  E).     Development  by  typical  examples  (I  A  i  b) 
in   the   order   of   known   to   unknown    (I  A  2).     Coherence   by 
parallel   construction   (I  B  2),    and   sequence   by   question   and 
answer  (IV  A) .     Of  crass  cynicism  examples  are  too  rife. 


94 

let  no  parent  have  any  control  over  his  child.  Many  women 
would  be  more  at  ease  and  perhaps  more  able  to  work  in  their 
own  way,  if  they  wore  men's  clothes.  And  some  men,  among 
the  old  and  the  delicate,  might  be  more  comfortable  in  skirts. 
Therefore,  abolish  the  foolish  restrictions  about  Male  and  Female 
dress.  And  this  our  reformers,  it  seems,  are  preparing  to  do. 
Many  men  and  more  women  are,  at  twenty,  better  fitted  to 
"come  of  age"  than  some  men  at  thirty.  Therefore,  let  every 
one  "come  of  age "  when  he  or  she  thinks  fit.  Many  a  man  who, 
through  hunger,  steals  a  turnip  is  an  angel  of  light  compared 
with  a  millionaire  who  speculates.  Therefore,  abolish  all  laws 
against  stealing.  Many  a  foreigner  living  in  England  knows 
far  more  of  politics  than  most  native  electors.  Therefore,  abolish 
all  restrictions  applying  to  "aliens"  as  such. 

HARRISON  (48),  The  Future  of  Woman. 

74.   Optimism  (V  A  d  4).— 

We  cannot  describe  the  natural  history  of  the  soul,  but  we 
know  that  it  is  divine.  I  cannot  tell  if  these  wonderful  qualities 
which  house  to-day  in  this  mortal  frame,  shall  ever  reassemble 
in  equal  activity  in  a  similar  frame,  or  whether  they  have  before 
had  a  natural  history  like  that  of  this  body  you  see  before  you; 
but  this  one  thing  I  know,  that  these  qualities  did  not  now  begin 
to  exist,  cannot  be  sick  with  any  sickness,  nor  buried  in  any 
grave;  but  that  they  circulate  through  the  Universe:  before  the 
world  was,  they  were.  Nothing  can  bar  them  out,  or  shut  them 
in,  they  penetrate  the  ocean  and  land,  space  and  time,  form  and 
essence,  and  hold  the  key  to  universal  nature.  I  draw  from  this 
faith  courage  and  hope.  All  things  are  known  to  the  soul. 
It  is  not  to  be  surprised  by  any  communication.  Nothing  can 
be  greater  than  it.  Let  those  fear  and  those  fawn  who  will. 
The  soul  is  in  her  native  realm,  and  it  is  wider  than  space,  older 


74.  Tenor  of  spontaneity  and  elan  (VA),  attaining  sublimity 
and  fascinating  by  its  mystery  as  well  as  personal  concern  (V  B). 
Texture  simple  (III  A)  and  outspoken  (III  D).  Movement  in 
style  coupe  (IV  C)  but  varying  (IV  B).  Emphasis  by  successive 
short  sentences  and  climax  (III  B). 


95 

than  time,  wide  as  hope,  rich  as  love.  Pusillanimity  and  fear 
she  refuses  with  a  beautiful  scorn:  they  are  not  for  her  who 
putteth  on  her  coronation  robes,  and  goes  out  through  universal 
love  to  universal  power. 

EMERSON  (35),  The  Method  of  Nature. 

75.  Sincerity  (V  A  2  a).— 

The  harm  which  is  done  by  credulity  in  a  man  is  not  confined 
to  the  fostering  of  a  credulous  character  in  others,  and  consequent 
support  of  false  beliefs.  Habitual  want  of  care  about  what  I 
believe  leads  to  habitual  want  of  care  in  others  about  the  truth 
of  what  is  told  to  me.  Men  speak  the  truth  to  one  another  when 
each  reverses  the  truth  in  his  own  mind  and  in  the  other's  mind ; 
but  how  shall  my  friend  reverse  the  truth  in  my  mind  when  I 
myself  am  careless  about  it,  when  I  believe  things  because  I 
want  to  believe  them,  and  because  they  are  comforting  and 
pleasant?  Will  he  not  learn  to  cry,  "Peace,"  to  me,  when  there 
is  no  peace?  By  such  a  course  I  shall  surround  myself  with  a 
thick  atmosphere  of  falsehood  and  fraud,  and  in  that  I  must  live. 
It  may  matter  little  to  me,  in  my  cloud-castle  of  sweet  illusions 
and  darling  lies;  but  it  matters  much  to  Man  that  I  have  made 
my  neighbors  ready  to  deceive.  The  credulous  man  is  father 
to  the  liar  and  the  cheat;  he  lives  in  the  bosom  of  his  family, 
and  it  is  no  marvel  if  he  should  become  even  as  they  are.  So 
closely  are  our  duties  knit  together,  that  whoso  shall  keep  the 
whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all. 

CLIFFORD  (45),  The  Ethics  of  Belief. 

76.  Ideality  (V  A  2  b).— 

They  argue  against  a  fair  discussion  of  popular  prejudices, 
because,  say  they,  though  they  would  be  found  without  any 

75.  Of   grave   mood   and   showing   penetration    (VA),   gaining 
esteem  by  cogency  ( V  B) .     Development  by  pro  and  con  (I  A  i  b) . 
Notice  that  the  personal  pronoun  is  used  not  individually  but 
universally  (III  D). 

76.  Tenor  of  austerity  (V  A)  attaining  elevation  (V  B).     Texture 
abstract  (III  A). 


96 

reasonable  support,  yet  the  discovery  might  be  productive  of  the 
most  dangerous  consequences.  Absurd  and  blasphemous  notion ! 
as  if  all  happiness  was  not  connected  with  the  practice  of  virtue, 
which  necessarily  depends  upon  the  knowledge  of  truth;  that  is, 
upon  the  knowledge  of  those  unalterable  relations  which  Provi- 
dence has  ordained  that  everything  should  bear  to  every  other. 
These  relations,  which  are  truth  itself,  the  foundation  of  virtue, 
and,  consequently,  the  only  measures  of  happiness,  should  be 
likewise  the  only  measures  by  which  we  should  direct  our  reason- 
ing. To  these  we  should  conform  in  good  earnest;  and  not 
think  to  force  nature,  and  the  whole  order  of  her  system,  by  a 
compliance  with  our  pride  and  folly,  to  conform  to  our  artificial 
regulations. 

BURKE  (20),  A  Vindication  of  Natural  Society. 

77.   Sensuousness  (V  A  2  c)  .— 

Night  is  a  dead  monotonous  period  under  a  roof;  but  in  the 
open  world  it  passes  lightly,  with  its  stars  and  dews  and  per- 
fumes, and  the  hours  are  marked  by  changes  in  the  face  of 
Nature.  What  seems  a  kind  of  temporal  death  to  people  choked 
between  walls  and  curtains,  is  only  a  light  and  living  slumber 
to  the  man  who  sleeps  afield.  All  night  long  he  can  hear  Nature 
breathing  deeply  and  freely;  even  as  she  takes  her  rest,  she 
turns  and  smiles;  and  there  is  one  stirring  hour  unknown  to 
those  who  dwell  in  houses,  when  a  wakeful  influence  goes  abroad 
over  the  sleeping  hemisphere,  and  all  the  outdoor  world  are  on 
their  feet.  It  is  then  that  the  cock  first  crows,  not  this  time  to 
announce  the  dawn,  but  like  a  cheerful  watchman  speeding  the 
course  of  night.  Cattle  awake  on  the  meadows;  sheep  break 
their  fast  on  dewy  hillsides,  and  change  to  a  new  lair  among  the 
ferns;  and  houseless  men,  who  have  lain  down  with  the  fowls, 
open  their  dim  eyes  and  behold  the  beauty  of  the  night. 

STEVENSON  (46),  Travels  with  a  Donkey. 

77.  An  example  of  picturesqueness  and  elegance  interesting  by 
its  novelty  (V  B).  Movement  varying  (IV  B)  with  alternation 
of  short  and  long  (IV  C).  Texture  concrete  (III  A).  Tenor 
showing  observation  (V  A) . 


97 

78.   Intelligibility  (V  B  i).— 

It  has  often  been  observed  that,  when  the  eyes  of  the  infant 
first  open  upon  the  world,  the  reflected  rays  of  light  which  strike 
them  from  the  myriad  of  surrounding  objects  present  to  him  no 
image,  but  a  medley  of  colours  and  shadows.  They  do  not  form 
into  a  whole;  they  do  not  rise  into  foregrounds  and  melt  into 
distances;  they  do  not  divide  into  groups;  they  do  not  coalesce 
into  unities;  they  do  not  combine  into  persons;  but  each  particu- 
lar hue  and  tint  stands  by  itself,  wedged  in  amid  a  thousand 
others  upon  the  vast  and  flat  mosaic,  having  no  intelligence, 
and  conveying  no  story,  any  more  than  the  wrong  side  of  some 
rich  tapestry.  The  little  babe  stretches  out  his  arms  and  fingers, 
as  if  to  grasp  or  to  fathom  the  many-coloured  vision;  and  thus 
he  gradually  learns  the  connexion  of  part  with  part,  separates 
what  moves  from  what  is  stationary,  watches  the  coming  and 
going  of  figures,  masters  the  idea  of  shape  and  of  perspective, 
calls  in  the  information  conveyed  through  the  other  senses  to 
assist  him  in  his  mental  process,  and  thus  gradually  converts  a 
calidoscope  into  a  picture.  The  first  view  was  the  more  splendid, 
the  second  the  more  real;  the  former  more  poetical,  the  latter 
more  philosophical.  Alas!  what  are  we  doing  all  through  life, 
both  as  a  necessity  and  as  a  duty,  but  unlearning  the  world's 
poetry,  and  attaining  to  its  prose!  This  is  our  education,  as 
boys  and  as  men,  in  the  action  of  life,  and  in  the  closet  or  library: 
in  our  affections,  in  our  aims,  in  our  hopes,  and  in  our  memories. 
And  in  like  manner  it  is  the  education  of  our  intellect ;  I  say,  that 
one  main  portion  of  intellectual  education,  of  the  labours  of  .both 
school  and  university,  is  to  remove  the  original  dimness  of  the 
mind's  eye;  to  strengthen  and  perfect  its  vision;  to  enable  it  to 
look  out  into  the  world  right  forward,  steadily  and  truly;  to  give 
the  mind  clearness,  accuracy,  precision;  to  enable  it  to  use  words 
aright,  to  understand  what  it  says,  to  conceive  justly  what  it 


78.  Interest  from  personal  concern  (V  B).  Development  by 
tracing  similarity  (I  A  i  b).  Rhythm  jerky  (IV  C).  Compare 
SWLFT  in  No.  56.  The  similarity  of  structure  and  tone  is  evi- 
dence of  Swift's  penetrating  analysis  of  the  permanent  elements 
in  homiletic  style. 


thinks  about,  to  abstract,  compare,  analyze,  divide,  define,  and 
reason,  correctly.  There  is  a  particular  science  which  takes 
these  matters  in  hand,  and  it  is  called  logic;  but  it  is  not  by  logic, 
certainly  not  by  logic  alone,  that  the  faculty  I  speak  of  is  acquired. 
The  infant  does  not  learn  to  spell  and  read  the  hues  upon  his 
retina  by  any  scientific  rule ;  nor  does  the  student  learn  accuracy 
of  thought  by  any  manual  or  treatise.  The  instruction  given 
him,  of  whatever  kind,  if  it  be  really  instruction,  is  mainly,  or  at 
least  pre-eminently,  this, —  a  discipline  in  accuracy  of  mind. 

NEWMAN  (34),  Elementary  Studies. 

79.   Novelty  (V  B  2  a).— 

We  stopped  before  the  gate  of  a  large  building  [in  Cairo], 
and,  turning,  entered  a  court  of  no  great  size,  with  a  range  of 
apartments  all  round;  open  doors  showed  that  they  were  dark 
and  wretched.  At  them,  or  before  them,  stood  or  sat  small 
groups  of  female  slaves;  also  from  within  these  chambers,  you 
might  catch  the  moving  eyes  and  white  teeth  of  those  who 
shunned  the  light.  There  was  a  gallery  above  with  other  rooms, 
and  slave  girls  leaning  on  the  rail  —  laughter,  all  laughter!  - 
their  long  hair  in  numerous  falling  curls,  white  with  fat;  their 
faces,  arms,  and  bosoms  shining  with  grease.  Exposure  in  the 
market  is  the  moment  of  their  joy.  Their  cots,  their  country, 
the  breast  that  gave  them  suck,  the  hand  that  led  their  tottering 
steps  not  forgotten,  but  resigned,  given  up,  as  things  gone  forever, 
left  in  another  world.  The  toils  and  terrors  of  the  wide  desert, 
the  hard  and  scanty  fare,  the  swollen  foot,  the  whip,  the  scalding 
tear,  the  curse;  all,  all  are  behind:  hope  meets  them  again  here; 
and  paints  some  master  kind;  some  mistress  gentle;  some  babe 
or  child  to  win  the  heart  of;  —  as  bond-women  they  may  bear  a 
son,  and  live  and  die  the  contented  inmates  of  some  quiet  harem. 
ANONYMOUS  (23),  quoted  by  Jeffrey  in  the  Edin.  Rev. 


79.  Interesting  by  its  novelty  and  appealing  by  its  pathos 
(VB).  Texture  concrete  (III  A).  Words  that  express  passion 
(II  B  3).  Example  of  observation  and  of  development  by  the 
introduction  of  specific  details.  Excessive  use  of  apposition. 
Emphasis  by  concreteness. 


99 

80.  Oddity  (V  B  2  b).— 

But  the  iniquity  of  oblivion  blindly  scattereth  her  poppy, 
and  deals  with  the  memory  of  men  without  distinction  of  merit 
to  perpetuity.  Who  can  but  pity  the  founder  of  the  pyramids? 
Herostratus  lives  that  burnt  the  temple  of  Diana,1  he  is  almost 
lost  that  built  it.  Time  hath  spared  the  epitaph  of  Adrian's2 
horse,  confounded  that  of  himself.  In  vain  we  compute  our 
felicities  by  the  advantage  of  our  good  names,  since  bad  have 
equal  durations,  and  Thersites  is  like  to  live  as  long  as  Agamem- 
non. Who  knows  whether  the  best  of  men  be  known,  or  whether 
there  be  not  more  remarkable  persons  forgot,  than  any  that 
stand  remembered  in  the  known  account  of  time?  Without 
the  favour  of  the  everlasting  register,  the  first  man  had  been  as 
unknown  as  the  last,  and  Methuselah's  long  life  had  been  his 
only  chronicle. 

BROWNE  (9),  Urn  Burial. 

81.  Wit  (VB  2a).- 

It  is  indeed  much  easier  to  describe  what  is  not  humour,  than 
what  is;  and  very  difficult  to  define  it  otherwise  than  as  Cowley 
has  done  wit,  by  negatives.  Were  I  to  give  my  own  notions  of  it, 
I  would  deliver  them  after  Plato's  manner,  in  a  kind  of  allegory, 
and  by  supposing  Humour  to  be  a  person,  deduce  to  him  all  his 
qualifications,  according  to  the  following  genealogy.  Truth 
was  the  founder  of  the  family,  and  the  father  of  Good  Sense. 
Good  Sense  was  the  father  of  Wit,  who  married  a  lady  of  a  col- 
lateral line  called  Mirth,  by  whom  he  had  issue  Humour.  Hu- 
mour therefore  being  the  youngest  of  this  illustrious  family,  and 
descended  from  parents  of  such  different  dispositions,  is  very 
various  and  unequal  in  his  temper;  sometimes  you  see  him 
putting  on  grave  locks  and  a  solemn  habit,  sometimes  airy  in 

80.  Of  sombre  mood   (VA),   appealing   by  its   pathos   (V  B). 
Movement  slow  (IV  A).     Texture  allusive  (III  C)  and  attitude 
staid  (III  D).     Development  by  exceptional  examples  (I  A  i  b). 

81.  Of  fanciful  tenor  (VA),  attaining  elegance  and  appealing 
by  its  grace   (V  B).     Texture  figurative   (III  C),  attitude   dis- 
engaged (III  D).     Rhythm,  style  coupe  (IV  C). 


100 

his  behaviour  and  fantastic  in  his  dress ;  insomuch  that  at  differ- 
ent times  he  appears  as  serious  as  a  judge,  and  as  jocular  as  a 
merry-andrew.  But  as  he  has  a  great  deal  of  the  mother  in  his 
constitution,  whatever  mode  he  is  in,  he  never  fails  to  make  his 
company  laugh. 

ADDISON  (14),  Spectator,  No.  35. 

82.  Interest  from  mystery  (V  B  2  e).— 

'Thus  encircled  by  the  mystery  of  Existence;  under  the  deep 
heavenly  Firmament;  waited  on  by  the  four  golden  Seasons 
with  their  vicissitudes  of  contribution,  for  even  grim  Winter 
brought  its  skating-matches  and  shooting-matches,  its  snow- 
storms and  Christmas-carols, —  did  the  child  sit  and  learn. 
These  things  were  the  Alphabet,  whereby  in  after-time  he  was 
to  syllable  and  partly  read  the  grand  Volume  of  the  World ;  what 
matters  it  whether  such  Alphabet  be  in  large  gilt  letters  or  in 
small  ungilt  ones,  so  you  have  an  eye  to  read  it?  For  Gneschen, 
eager  to  learn,  the  very  act  of  looking  thereon  was  a  blessedness 
that  gilded  all;  his  existence  was  a  bright,  soft  element  of  Joy; 
out  of  which,  as  in  Prospero's  Island,  wonder  after  wonder  bodied 
itself  forth,  to  teach  by  charming. 

CARLYLE  (31),  Sartor  Resartus,  II,  iL 

83.  Informative  (V  B  2  b).— 

It  is  a  great  point  then  to  enlarge  the  range  of  studies  which  a 
University  professes,  even  for  the  sake  of  the  students;  and, 
though  they  cannot  pursue  every  subject  which  is  open  to  them, 
they  will  be  the  gainers  by  living  among  those  and  under  those 
who  represent  the  whole  circle.  This  I  conceive  to  be  the  ad- 
vantage of  a  seat  of  universal  learning,  considered  as  a  place  of 

82.  Example  of  ornateness   (III  C)   with  German   peculiarities 
(III  E  i)  in  capitals  and  hyphenations,  interesting  by  its  oddity 
(VB).     Attitude  emotional  (III  D),  savoring  of  chicane  (VA), 
Diction  impressive  by  use  of  colors  of  good  (II  C  2  c). 

83.  Development  by  offering  reasons  (I  A  i  b).     Texture  direct 
and  literal  (III  C).     Tenor  confident  (VA).     Rhythm  of  short 
and    long    phrasing    alternated    (IV  C) .     Idea    words    clearly 
separated  (III  A). 


education.  An  assemblage  of  learned  men,  zealous  for  their  own 
sciences,  and  rivals  of  each  other,  are  brought,  by  familiar 
intercourse  and  for  the  sake  of  intellectual  peace,  to  adjust  to- 
gether the  claims  and  relations  of  their  respective  subjects  of 
investigation.  They  learn  to  respect,  to  consult,  to  aid  each 
other.  Thus  is  created  a  pure  and  clear  atmosphere  of  thought, 
which  the  student  also  breathes,  though  in  his  own  case  he  only 
pursues  a  few  sciences  out  of  the  multitude.  He  profits  by  an 
intellectual  tradition,  which  is  independent  of  particular  teachers, 
which  guides  him  in  his  choice  of  subjects,  and  duly  interprets 
for  him  those  which  he  chooses.  He  apprehends  the  great  out- 
lines of  knowledge,  the  principles  on  which  it  rests,  the  scale  of 
its  parts,  its  lights  and  its  shades,  its  great  points  and  its  little, 
as  he  otherwise  cannot  apprehend  them.  Hence  it  is  that  his 
education  is  called  "Liberal."  A  habit  of  mind  is  formed  which 
lasts  through  life,  of  which  the  attributes  are,  freedom,  equitable- 
ness,  calmness,  moderation,  and  wisdom;  or  what  in  a  former 
Discourse  I  have  ventured  to  call  a  philosophical  habit. 

NEWMAN  (34),  University  Teaching,  V. 

84.   Elegance  (V  B  3  a).— 

The  fame  he  conceived  for  himself  at  this  time  was,  as  the 
reader  will  have  anticipated,  of  the  intellectual  order,  that  of  a 
poet  perhaps.  And  as,  in  that  gray  monastic  tranquillity  of  the 
villa,  inward  voices  from  the  reality  of  unseen  things  had  come 
abundantly;  so  here,  with  the  sounds  and  aspects  of  the  shore , 
and  amid  the  urbanities,  the  graceful  follies,  of  a  bathing-place , 
it  was  the  reality,  the  tyrannous  reality  of  things  visible  that  was 
borne  in  upon  him.  The  real  world  around  —  a  present  humanity 
not  less  comely,  it  might  seem,  than  that  of  the  old  heroic  days  — 
endowing  everything  it  touched  upon,  however  remotely,  down 
to  its  little  passing  tricks  of  fashion  even,  with  a  kind  of  fleeting 
beauty,  exercised  over  him  just  then  a  great  fascination. 

PATER  (44),  Marius  the  Epicurean. 

84.  Picturesqueness  and  grace  with  beauty  of  cadence  (V  B). 
Fanciful  mood  showing  reflexion  (V  A) .  Texture  complex,  with 
much  implication  (III  A) .  Diction  of  aesthetic  connotation  (II  B) . 


102 

8s.    Elevation  (sublimity)   (VB3c).— 

The  benevolent  regards  and  purposes  of  men  in  masses  seldom 
can  be  supposed  to  extend  beyond  their  own  generation.  They 
may  look  to  posterity  as  an  audience,  may  hope  for  its  attention, 
and  labor  for  its  praise;  they  may  trust  to  its  recognition  of 
unacknowledged  merit,  and  demand  its  justice  for  contemporary 
wrong.  But  all  this  is  mere  selfishness,  and  does  not  involve  the 
slightest  regard  to,  or  consideration  of,  the  interest  of  those  by 
whose  numbers  we  would  fain  swell  the  circle  of  our  flatterers, 
and  by  whose  authority  we  would  gladly  support  our  presently 
disputed  claims.  The  idea  of  self-denial  for  the  sake  of  posterity, 
of  practising  present  economy  for  the  sake  of  debtors  yet  unborn, 
of  planting  forests  that  our  descendants  may  live  under  their 
shade,  or  of  raising  cities  for  future  nations  to  inhabit,  never, 
I  suppose,  efficiently  takes  place  among  publicly  recognized 
motives  of  exertion.  Yet  these  are  not  the  less  our  duties;  nor 
is  our  part  fitly  sustained  upon  the  earth,  unless  the  range  of  our 
intended  and  deliberate  usefulness  include  not  only  the  compan- 
ions, but  the  successors,  of  our  pilgrimage.  God  has  lent  us  the 
earth  for  our  life;  it  is  a  great  entail.  It  belongs  as  much  to 
those  who  are  to  come  after  us,  and  whose  names  are  already 
written  in  the  book  of  creation  as  to  us;  and  we  have  no  right, 
by  anything  that  we  do  or  neglect,  to  involve  them  in  unneces- 
sary penalties,  or  deprive  them  of  benefits  which  it  was  in  our 
power  to  bequeath.  And  this  the  more,  because  it  is  one  of  the 
appointed  conditions  of  the  labor  of  men  that,  in  proportion  to 
the  time  between  the  seed-sowing  and  the  harvest,  is  the  fulness 
of  the  fruit;  and  that  generally,  therefore,  the  farther  off  we 
place  our  aim,  and  the  less  we  desire  to  be  ourselves  the  witnesses 
of  what  we  have  labored  for,  the  more  wide  and  rich  will  be  the 
measure  of  our  success.  Men  cannot  benefit  those  that  are  with 
them  as  they  can  benefit  those  who  come  after  them;  and  of  all 
the  pulpits  from  which  human  voice  is  ever  sent  forth,  there  is 
none  from  which  it  reaches  so  far  as  from  the  grave. 

RUSKIN  (40),  The  Lamp  of  Memory,  ix. 


85.   Tenor  revealing  ideality  and  penetration  (V  A). 


103 


NOTES. 

(No  attempt  is  here  made  to  explain  matters  of  ready  reference: 
(i)  words,  phrases,  and  proper  names  accessible  in  the  ordinary 
student  dictionaries;  (2)  quotations,  classical  mythology,  and 
allusions  to  history  such  as  most  students  have  at  least  encoun- 
tered; (3)  simple  phrases  in  languages  usually  required  in  or 
before  the  first  year  of  college.) 
X.  i.  Compilation. 

XXIII.  i.    "Urn  Burial." 

XXIV.  i.    Musical  flourish  or  embellishment,  as  a  trill. 
XXV.    i.    An  imitator  of  Cicero's  style. 

XXXI.    i.    By  Addison  in  Spectator,  No.  159. 

1.  i.    Then  a  sacred  number:   nine  orders  of  angels,  circles  in 
Hell,  etc. 

2.  =  dux,  military  leader. 

3.  Not  then  confined  to  legal  phrasing. 

2.  i.    The  oldest  scientific  society  in  Great  Britain,  from  about 
1645.     The  Principia  explained  Newton's  theory  of  gravi- 
tation. 

4.  i.  A  square  in  London,  formerly  a  convent,  now  a  fruit  and 
flower  market.  In  Addison's  day  many  coffee  houses  there 
drew  companies  of  literary  men. 

6.  i.  Vauxhall  Gardens  in  London  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
Thames,  a  popular  pleasure  resort  (c.  1661-1859). 

2.  By  Nathaniel  Lee  (1677-8).     Roxana,  Alexander's  con- 
cubine, jealous  of  his  wife  Statira,  daughter  of  the  Persian 
king  Darius,  slew  her  by  stabbing. 

3.  A  circus  held  in  the  later  i8th  and  early  igth  centuries, 
near  Vauxhall  Gardens,  by  Philip  Astley  (d.  1814). 

12.    i.    The  usual  motto  is  per  aspera  ad  astra,  through  difficul- 
ties to  the  stars. 

14.  i.    Swift  was  dean  of  St.  Patrick's,  Dublin,  from  1713. 

2.  The  opening  invokes  on  impenitents  the  wrath  of  God. 

3.  A  buffoon  who  entertains  by  feats  of  swallowing,  like  the 
French  Jean  Potage  and  the  German  Hans  Wurst. 

15.  i.    From  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  iv,  73:- 

" Which  way  I  fly  is  hell;   myself  am  hell; 
And  in  the  lowest  deep  a  lower  deep, 
Still  threat ning  to  devour  me,  opens  wide." 


104 

3i.    i.    See  4.    i.    Fleet  Street  and  the  Strand  form  a  continuous 
business  street,  near  and  parallel  to  the  Thames.     A  map 
and  views  of  London  will  enliven  passages  of  literary  allu- 
sion to  this  centre  of  most  English  literature. 
2.    Buying,  usually  with  some  bargaining. 

34.  i.  A  painting,  usually  called  the  Mona  Lisa.  For  a  de- 
scription of  it,  see  68. 

2.  A  town  of  northwestern  Italy,  between  Pisa  and  Genoa, 
famous  for  quarries  of  fine,  snow-white  marble.     Carrara 
marble   was   used   by   Augustus   in   rebuilding   Rome,   by 
Michelangelo  and  modern  sculptors  for  their  best  statues. 

3.  A  brilliant  and  gay  young  Italian  nobleman,  whose  de- 
votion to  classical  learning  and  philosophic  defense  of  the 
church   lend   him   a   unique   attraction   among   Florentine 
writers  of  the  Renaissance. 

37.    i.   Historian. 

2.   To  enclose  (something)  as  if  woven  in  a  meshwork.     Obs. 
39.    i.    Florentine  painter  (1387-1455),  a  Dominican  friar,  noted 

for  the  delicate  purity  of  his  frescoes  of  saints  and  angels. 

2.   Venetian  painter  (1530-1538),  noted  for  his  sumptuous 

grouping  and  opalescent  coloring. 
41.    i.    German  theologian  (1694-1755). 
47.    i.    The  royal  family   of   France,   noted   for  its   persistent 

clinging  to  absolute  power. 
49.    i.    The  falls  of  the  Nile  were  the  greatest  then  known. 

2.  The  'music  of  the  spheres,'  or  planets,  made  by  their 
movements  according  to  Platonic  theory. 

3.  In  Greek  mythology,  the  spirit  of  fault  finding,  a  child 
of  Night. 

4.  A  mythical  king  of  Phrygia,  whose  ears  were  changed  by 
Apollo  to  those  of  an  ass  because  he  awarded  the  prize  for 
music  to  Pan  (rustic  god  of  herdsmen)  instead  of  to  Apollo. 

5.  Regarded  as  an  error  for  Bupalus  (confused  with  Hippo- 
nax) ,  a  Greek  poet  said  to  have  hung  himself  because  Hippo- 
nax  so  bitterly  satirized  his  poetry. 

54.  i.  Greek  attic  prose  satirist  and  humorist  of  the  second 
century  A.D.,  perhaps  the  most  entertaining  of  Greek 
writers,  as  Ovid  is  of  Latin. 

2.  Greek   cynical   writer  of  the   third   century   B.C.  who 
treated  serious  subjects  with  raillery. 

3.  Greek  philosopher  of  Ephesus  about   500  B.C.,  called 


105 

"the  weeping  philosopher"  because  of  his  lonely  life  and 
contempt  for  mankind. 

4.  Laughing  with  a  petulant  spleen  (from  Persius). 

5.  Indignation  chafes  the  liver.     From  Horace's  Satires  I, 
ix,    66:—  "male  salens 

ridens  dissimulare:   meum  jecur  urere  bilis." 

6.  Greek  philosopher  of  about  400  B.C.,  called  the  " father 
of  medicine." 

7.  The  " laughing  philosopher"  (cf.  3);   in  fact,  greatest  of 
the  Greek   physicists,   noted   for   his   atomic   theory.     His 
period  was  c.  465-^  380  B.C. 

8.  A  town  in  Thrace,  the  alleged  birthplace  of  Democritus. 

9.  Black  bile.     Melancholy  was  supposedly  caused  by  an 
excess  of  black  bile.     So  yellow  bile  was  thought  to  make  one 
choleric;    blood,  sanguine;    phlegm,  phlegmatic. 

54.    10.    One  who  fills  up  a  gap.     The  verb  succenturio  meant  'to 
adopt  (one)  into  a  century,'  i.e.  company  of  soldiers. 

60.  i.   Author  of  a  satrical  story,  the  "Satirae,"  of  the  period  of 
Nero.     The  supposed  author  is  the  Petronius  in  "  Quo  Vadis." 

61.  i.    The  wicked  brother  of  Osiris,  who  cut  him  into  fourteen 
pieces  and  scattered  them  all  over  Egypt.     The  story  is 
from  Plutarch. 

2.  The    mythological    deified    king    who    civilized    Egypt. 
Originally  the  local  god  of  Busiris. 

3.  Wife  of  Osiris,  originally  a  local  goddess  near  Busiris. 
66.    i.    Oudh  is  a  province  in  the  center  of  northern  India.     The 

time  referred  to  is  about  1785. 

1.  The  tone  is  counterfeited  by  Burke,  and  the  Lord  is  a 
hoax.     He  is  mimicking  the  style  of  Bolinbroke  in  a  satirical 
essay  which  purports  to  be  a  posthumous  work  of  Bolinbroke. 
Burke  was  then  (1756)  aged  twenty-seven. 

68.    i.   A  celebrated  portrait  by  Leonardo  da  Vinci  (1452-1519), 

a  Milanese  artist  and  mechanician  of  remarkable  versatility. 

It  is  now  in  the  Louvre. 
70.    i.   According  to  Jewish  tradition,  Noah  preserved  in  the  ark 

a  book  of  visions  and  prophesies  by  Enoch,  father  of  Me- 

thusaleh. 

2.  Flavius  Josephus,  Jewish  historian  (A.D.  37?-Q5?). 

3.  Spanish  Jesuit  (1557-1637),  author  of  Monarchia  Eccles- 
iastica,  in  which  he  quotes  above  one  thousand  authors. 

80.    i.   At  Ephesus,  Asia  Minor. 

2.    The  Roman  emperor,  Hadrian. 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  STUDENTS 

j.  Good  style  is  found  in  a  combination  of  virtues.  Faultless 
mediocrity  belongs  with  the  souls  of  persons  neither  bad  nor  good 
—  in  Limbo.  "Let  us  not  speak  of  them,"  said  Virgil  to  Dante; 
" glance  and  pass  on."  Nor  is  any  one  virtue  indispensable: 
absence  of  coherence  often  helps  emphasis.  Gain  the  power  to 
write  with  each;  then,  having  skill,  suit  the  occasion. 

2.  Structure  (I). —  By  structure  is  meant  orderliness.  Take 
up  one  part  of  a  subject  at  a  time;  finish  with  it  before  passing 
to  the  next.  Many  speakers  confuse  their  stories,  or  their 
explanations,  by  interrupting  with  "  Oh,  I  forgot  to  say  that .  .  .  . " 
The  writer  no  less  owes  it  as  a  courtesy  to  plan  his  compositions 
so  that  the  reader  may  easily  understand  and  remember  them. 
Nevertheless,  students  are  tempted  to  write,  while  fancy  dictates, 
hoping  that  Providence  will  infuse  a  methodical  structure. 
Providence  does  so  —  in  the  case  of  experienced  writers,  because 
they  have  practised  planning  until  the  habit  has  become  instinc- 
tive. With  students,  direct  intervention  usually  comes  in  the 
form  of  blue  pencilling.  After  correctness,  structure  is  usually 
considered  the  most  important  element  in  composition. 

j.  Method  of  planning  (I  A). —  A  mature  mind  holds  in  solu- 
tion large  masses  of  related  facts,  much  as  a  student's  mind 
just  before  an  examination.  Under  such  conditions  a  plan  is 
likely  to  arise  spontaneously.  Otherwise  consider  the  follow- 
ing process : 

1.  Think  of  and  state  in  a  sentence  the  most  interesting  or 
important  thing  you  have  to  say  about  the  subject. 

2.  Disregarding  everything  else,  decide  on  the  most  appro- 
priate way  to  enlarge  on  this:  by  giving  example,  proof,  compari- 
sons, etc.     (See  the  outlines  in  7  and  14) . 

3.  Make  orderly  heads  and  subheads  of  this  nature. 

4.  Develop  these  subheads  by  the  same  process  until  you 
have  an  ample  body  of  material. 

5.  Having  thus  a  logically  complete  scheme  of  paragraphs  and 


their  contents,  decide  which  parts  to  compress,  and  which  to 
treat  at  length,  for  the  sake  of  (a)  clearness,  (b)  interest. 

6.  Plan  paragraphs  of  somewThat  equal  dimensions  ordinarily, 
now  treating  a  subhead  fully  in  one,  then  in  another  compressing 
several  headings  you  wish  to  pass  over  lightly.  See  MODELS, 
No.  21. 

4.  Topics    phrased    as    statements    (lAiai). —  A    sentence 
circumscribes  a  subject  so  that  there  is  no  escape.     "  Baseball  " 
branches  into  an  infinity  of  history,  rules,   particular  scenes, 
ethics,  and  what  not.     Tie  it  down  to  "  The  National  League 
has  the  better  players  this  year  "  or  "  The  game  I  saw  yesterday 
brought  out  several  sensational  plays  ":  unity  then  is  assured. — 
Read  J.  H:  Newman's  "  Elementary  Studies,"  Composition. 

5.  Addressing  a  definite  audience  (I  A  i  a  2). —  To  write  aim- 
lessly one's  random  thoughts  may  serve  the  purpose  of  self- 
expression  (for  those  who  write  from  a  need  for  self-expression) ; 
it  does  not  serve  for  communication  except  (as  in  lyric  poetry) 
when  the  spirit  cry  encounters  a  kindred  soul.     Ordinary  mortals 
write  to  convey  information  or  an  impression  to  such  persons  as 
need  it  or  have  interest.     Any  audience  held  clearly  in  mind  — 
your  teacher,  classmates,  the  photograph  on  your  desk  —  will 
give  a  direction  and  purposive  character  to  what  you  say. 

6.  Suiting  a  subject  to  space  requirements  (I  A  i  a  2  c  (i)).— 
Opera  glasses  can  be  looked  through  both  ways,  according  to 
which  objects  expand  or  shrink.     They  preserve,  nevertheless, 
unity  and  proportion.     So  with  subjects,  expansion  along  normal 
lines  of  development  or  compression  to  main  headings  will  make, 
of  almost  any,  a  book  or  a  paragraph.     The  exercises  of  precis 
(summary)  and  of  expansion  from  a  single  sentence  should  be 
used  to  induce  a  sense  of  such  organization. 

7.  Development  (I  A  i  b  i). —  Most  topics  may  be  expanded  in 
a  variety  of  ways,  by  subdivisions  or  by  citing  examples,  by 
offering  reasons  or  drawing  comparisons.     Usually,  too,  a  writer 
employs  some  combination  of  these  methods.  .  But  in  learning 
it  is  best  to  master  one  at  a  time.     Though  the  resulting  exercise 
be  unnaturally  logical,  human  nature  will  save  most  initiates 
from  continued  scholasticism. 


io8 

In  constructing  such  exercises,  an  outline  serves  to  guide  the 
thought.  It  should  be  written  first,  but  appended  as  in  the  fol- 
lowing example.  (See  Outlines,  p.  113.) 

In  the  chapters  that  follow,  I  purpose  first  to  examine  as 
carefully  as  may  be  the  outward  and  visible  body  of  style.  It  is 
made  up  of  what  I  may  call  four  elements, —  the  prime  element 
Words,  composed  in  Sentences,  composed  in  Paragraphs,  com- 
posed in  Whole  Compositions.  Each  of  these  elements  I  shall 
examine  in  detail,  inquiring  first  how  far  it  is  affected  by  the 
paramount  authority  of  good  use,  and  then  how  within  the  limits 
of  good  use  it  may  be  made,  by  means  of  the  principles  of  com- 
position or  otherwise,  to  assume  various  forms  and  to  perform 
various  offices.  Then,  when  we  have  studied  the  visible  body 
of  style,  its  material  elements,  as  carefully  as  we  can,  I  shall  turn 
to  the  three  qualities,  Clearness,  Force,  and  Elegance,  and  try  to 
determine  what  it  is  in  the  elements  by  which  each  of  them  may 
be  secured  or  lost. —  WENDELL:  English  Composition,  pp.  39-40. 

I  purpose  to  subdivide  the  present  study  of  style  as  follows: — 
I     The  outward  and  visible  body,  treated 
A     In  four  elements ;  namely, 

1  Words 

2  Sentences 

3  Paragraphs 

4  Whole  Compositions 

B     In  two  particulars;    namely, 

1  How  far  each  is  affected  by  good  use 

2  How  in  good  use  each  may  be  varied,  as  regards 

a     Forms 
b     Functions 
II     The  qualities,  treated 
A     As  three,  namely, 

1  Clearness 

2  Force 

3  Elegance 

B     In  one  particular;  namely, 

i .     By  what  in  the  elements  each  may  be  secured  or  lost. 

8.   Proportion  (I  A  2  a  2  a) . —  At  the  first  line  one  sees  the  subject 
through  a  telescope,  and  space  looms  large;    as  it  develops  one 


109 

seems  to  hold  a  microscope  under  which  its  branches  become 
enormous  tentacles  to  clutch  the  pages.  The  consequent 
tendency  to  a  diffuse  beginning  and  compact  close  is  best  antici- 
pated by  planning.  But  equal  treatment  of  all  parts  would 
seem  to  lack  adaptation.  It  is  best  to  suppress  or  glide  over  the 
unimportant  or  uninteresting  subheads,  and  best  to  expand  for 
clearness,  emphasis,  or  pleasure.  Proportion  will  be  satisfied 
if  the  writer  indicates,  not  too  obviously,  where  and  why  he 
condenses. 

There  is  also  the  proportion  of  details,  making  the  size  of 
paragraphs  not  eccentrically  uneven  and  their  contents  not 
bulked  inconveniently  at  either  end.  The  application  of  the 
latter  caveat  will  appear  from  a  sentence  in  which  the  second 
chief  member  becomes  corpulent. 

He  is  supposed  to  have  fallen,  by  his  father's  death,  into  the 
hands  of  his  uncle,  a  vintner,  near  Charing  Cross,  who  sent 
him  for  some  time  to  Dr.  Busby,  at  Westminster;  but,  not 
intending  to  give  him  any  education  beyond  that  of  the 
school,  took  him,  when  he  was  well  advanced  in  literature, 
to  his  own  house,  where  the  earl  of  Dorset,  celebrated  for 
patronage  of  genius,  found  him  by  chance,  as  Burnet  relates, 
reading  Horace,  and  was  so  well  pleased  with  his  proficiency 
that  he  undertook  the  care  and  cost  of  his  academical  edu- 
cation.—  JOHNSON  (18),  "Life  of  Prior." 

g.  Unity  (I  A  i  b  2). —  The  ideal  may  be  expressed  as  one  book, 
one  subject;  one  chapter,  one  phase  of  it;  one  paragraph,  one 
topic;  one  sentence,  one  thought.  This  ensures  clearness.  But 
sticking  to  one  virtue  sometimes  prevents  others,  as  frugality 
beggars  generosity.  Many  a  fine  parenthesis  is  worth  the 
interruption  and  confusion.  Fortunately,  unity  is  not  neces- 
sarily simple  and  patent :  compound  and  complex  sentences  form 
a  subtler  unity  by  associations  of  addition,  contrast,  cause  and 
effect,  etc.  So,  groups  of  words  Damon  and  Pythias,  flesh  and 
blood,  sinews  of  war  are  units,  much  as  are  words  formed  from 
separate  elements  —  collar  button,  necklace.  The  essential  is  that 
everything  included  in  one  group  shall  bear  a  clear  relation  to  the 
main  thought.  Otherwise  it  violates  unity,  even  though  ex- 
ceptional circumstances  justify  the  violation. 

10.  Topic  statement  (I  B  i  a). —  This  is  a  group  of  words  ex- 
pressing briefly  the  dominant  idea  of  a.  paragraph  or  larger  unit. 


no 

Textbooks  often  use  a  caption,  as  here.  A  single  sentence  is  the 
least  artificial  form,  but  less  obtrusiveness  may  be  secured  by 
distribution  in  two  sentences  or  by  the  echo.  As  to  position: 
in  exposition  it  comes  best  at  the  beginning  for  clearness;  in 
argument,  at  the  end  for  persuasiveness  and  memory;  sometimes, 
in  the  middle  for  distribution  of  emphasis.  The  topic  sentences 
of  a  series  of  paragraphs  should  crudely  form  a  paragraph  of 
themselves,  of  which  the  topic  statement  would  be  the  subject 
of  the  series:  this  would  correspond  to  the  all-inclusive  heading 
of  an  outline. 

ri.  Paragraph  limits  (I  B  i  b  /). —  Just  as  there  are  compound 
and  complex  sentences,  so  paragraphs  are  often  compound  or 
complex, —  the  former  when  two  subjects  are  associated  for 
comparison,  the  latter  when  related  by  cause  and  effect  or  by 
provisos.  The  unity  of  the  paragraph  is  their  association.  A 
single  type  of  development  rarely  occurs,  being  monotonous, 
except  for  cogency  in  argument  or  impressiveness  in  description. 
Routine  even  of  two  of  three  types  suggests  the  mechanical,  as 
in  the  excerpt  from  Caxton.  This  is  because  natural  sequence, 
like  a  leashed  dog,  constantly  tugs  at  logical  coherence.  One 
does  well  to  keep,  though  on  an  erratic  path,  within  the  field. 

12.  Limits  of  the  sentences. —  Between  the  units  of  sentence 
and  paragraph  lurks  a  division,  particularly  in  writers  of  long 
paragraphs,  which  corresponds  to  a  movement  of  thought,  often 
of  two  or  three,  rarely  of  many  sentences.  The  following  passages 
are  properly  indivisible:  a  dash  would  improve  the  first,  a  colon 
the  second,  a  colon  and  semicolon  the  third  —  not  for  emphasis, 
but  as  revealing  unity. 

Who  did  it?     Plainly  not  any  man,  but  all  men:   it  was 
the   prevalence   and   inundation   of   an   idea. —  EMERSON, 
The  Method  of  Nature. 
(Compare  Newman's  practice  in  XIII) 

Religion  is  yet  to  be  settled  on  its  fast  foundations  in  the 
breast  of  man;  and  politics,  and  philosophy,  and  letters, 
and  art.  As  yet  we  have  nothing  but  tendency  and  inclina- 
tion.—  EMERSON,  Literary  Ethics. 

Great  as  the  variety  of  these  large  divisions  of  learning 
may  appear,  they  are  all  held  in  union  by  two  capital  princi- 


Ill 

pies  of  connexion.  First,  they  are  all  quarried  out  of  one 
and  the  same  great  subject  of  man's  moral,  social,  and  feeling 
nature.  And  secondly,  they  are  all  under  the  control  (more 
or  less  strict)  of  the  same  power  of  moral  reason."  —  NEW- 
MAN, University  Teaching  VII  9. 

At  times  such  passages  are  written  in  style  coupG  (IV  C  i)  and 
therefore  should  not  be  unified  into  sentences.  Some  writers 
resort  to  further  separation  of  sentences,  as  by  dashes  or  rows  of 
asterisks  (*  *  *).  The  following  units  are  excerpts  from  para- 
graphs which  have  a  larger  unity. 

The  sins  of  our  trade  belong  to  no  class,  to  no  individual. 
One  plucks,  one  distributes,  one  eats.  Everybody  partakes, 
everybody  confesses, —  with  cap  and  knee  volunteers  his 
confession,  yet  none  feels  himself  accountable.  He  did  not 
create  the  abuse;  he  cannot  alter  it.  What  is  he?  an  ob- 
scure private  person  who  must  get  his  bread.  That  is  the 
vice, —  that  no  one  feels  himself  called  to  act  for  man,  but 
only  as  a  fraction  of  man. —  EMERSON,  Man  the  Reformer. 

So  it  happens  with  our  philosophy.  Translate,  collate, 
distil  all  the  systems,  it  steads  you  nothing;  for  truth  will 
not  be  compelled,  in  any  mechanical  manner.  But  the  first 
observation  you  make,  in  the  sincere  act  of  your  nature, 
though  on  the  veriest  trifle,  may  open  a  new  view  of  nature 
and  of  man,  that,  like  a  menstruum,  shall  dissolve  all 
theories  in  it;  shall  take  up  Greece,  Rome,  Stoicism,  Eclecti- 
cism, and  what  not,  as  mere  data  and  food  for  analysis,  and 
dispose  of  your  world-containing  system,  as  a  very  little 
unit. —  EMERSON,  Literary  Ethics. 

Mere  length,  however,  is  no  logical  criterion  of  sentence  divi- 
sion. Good  writers  sometimes  run  above  three  hundred  words 
(See  XVIII).  The  next  sentence  would  be  more  consistent  if 
punctuated  as  in  the  brackets. 

For  instance,  let  a  person,  whose  experience  has  hitherto 
been  confined  to  the  more  calm  and  unpretending  scenery 
of  these  islands,  whether  here  or  in  England,  go  for  the  first 
time  into  parts  where  physical  nature  puts  on  her  wilder 
and  more  awful  forms,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  as  into 


112 

mountainous  districts;  or  let  one,  who  has  ever  lived  in  a 
quiet  village,  go  for  the  first  time  to  a  great  metropolis, — 
then  I  suppose  he  will  have  a  sensation  which  perhaps  he 
never  had  before.  [ :  ]  He  has  a  feeling  not  in  addition  or  in- 
crease of  former  feelings,  but  of  something  different  in  its 
nature.  [ ;  ]  He  will  perhaps  be  borne  forward,  and  find  for  a 
time  that  he  has  lost  his  bearings.  [;  ]  He  has  made  a  certain 
progress,  and  he  has  a  consciousness  of  mental  enlargement ; 
he  does  not  stand  where  he  did,  he  has  a  new  centre,  and 
a  range  of  thoughts  to  which  he  was  before  a  stranger. — 

NEWMAN,  University  Teaching  VI. 

73.  Limits  of  a  word  (IB  i  b  j). —  German  thoroughness  usually 
makes  these  obvious  by  using  hyphens,  which  in  English  are  a 
feature  of  Carlylese.  Punctuation,  however,  removes  some  of 
the  native  obscurity,  as  in  the  following  cases. 

1.  Groups  containing  adjectives: 

'The  sleepy,  irate  father.' 

'The  sportive  young  man.'  sleepy   )  f  , , 

'The  pale  gray  dawn.'  irate      j  1{ 

Here  young  man  (youth)  and  pale  gray  are  thought  of  as  single 
words.  The  comma  serves  as  a  bracket.  Similarly  in  groups  of 
three  or  more  adjectives  the  comma  before  and  is  logical,  unless 
the  last  adjectives  form  a  pair  —  '  hapless,  black  and  blue 
penitent.'  This  is  distinct  from  '  brave,  ambitious,  and  super- 
stitious Macbeth  ' :  the  former  is  one  and  a  pair ;  the  latter  three 
of  a  kind. 

2.  Relative  clauses: 

'The  girl  who  chews  gum.' 

'Lucy,  who  chews  gum.' 

Girl  is  a  genus;  adding  who  chews  gum  makes  it  a  species.  But 
Lucy,  being  one  person,  cannot  be  more  specific,  though  we  might 
speak  of  '  those  Lucies  who  chew  gum.'  Practically  these  are 
single  words,  like  '  Big-chief -with-the-little-feather-in-his-hat.' 
A  good  test  is  to  repeat  the  main  word,  asking:  What  girl? 
which  chief?  If  the  clause  answers  the  question  it  forms  part 
of  one  word  and  therefore  cannot  be  separated.  '  This  is  the 
thing  which  he  told  me  to  give  you.'  Or,  try  substituting  a 
parenthetical  sentence :  '  Lucy  —  she  chews  gum  ' :  if  you  can, 
you  have  more  than  one  word. 


3.    Prolonged  subjects: 

'  The  conspiracy  of  editors  seeking  to  evade  the  censorship 
constitutes  a  national  peril.' 

Usage  formerly  prescribed  a  comma  after  very  long  subjects,  as 
here  after  censorship,  to  indicate  their  unity.  The  comma  is 
useful  where  a  clash  of  verbs  may  confuse:  "  Words  that  most 
men  know,  serve  best." .  .  . "  Whatever  is,  is  right." 

14.  Outlines  (IB  i  C  2). —  Nothing  proves  unity  better  than  to 
analyze  your  statements,  reducing  them  to  a  single  statement. 
Read  Newman's  "  Elementary  Studies,"  Composition. 

I     I  believe  that  outlines  should  be  made  in  sentences,  because 

A     Doing  this  forces  a  student  to  think,  definitely,  because 

i     He  must  state  propositions  instead  of  alluding  to  topics ; 

and 
B     It  teaches  the  relations  of  ideas,  because 

1  These  sentences  must  be  connected  by  conjunctions, 
and 

2  Use  of  an  inappropriate  conjunction  at  once  reveals 
deficiency  of  logical  coherence. 

Statements  in  the  major  headings  will  suffice  all  but  the  most 
fastidious.  See  7. 

One  method  is  to  jot  down  headings  as  they  occur;  group  them, 
providing  major  heads,  and  then  fill  in  with  other  subheadings. 
A  more  logical,  and  ultimately  easier,  way  is  to  frame  a  statement 
and  choose  a  type  of  development,  repeating  the  process  for  each 
subheading  that  arises. 


Topic  statement  for 


g.     _  KW*  See  Structure, 

-with  the  result  that  \  — — 


{ in  that 


To  make  a  logical  outline  only  after  writing  is  rarely  feasible: 
a  student's  natural  course  of  thought  normally  lacks  involved 
structure. 

One  more  type  of  outline  is  subjoined. 

"I.     It  is  a  mistake  not  to  let  us  take  our  notebooks  from  the 
laboratory  in  Chemistry  A,  for 

A     Although  it  is  said  that  the  work  done  by  this  method  is 
more  satisfactory, 


H4 

A'    Yet  this  is  not  so,  for 

1.  The  one  laboratory  period  per  week  is  largely  taken  up 
by  the  written  work,  and 

2.  The  writing  is  hastily  done  and  cannot  be  revised,  and 
B     Although  it  is  said  that  this  method  guarantees  honest 

work, 
B'    Yet  this  is  a  poor  and  mistaken  policy,  for 

1.  College  men  are  mature  enough  to  be  trusted,  and 

2.  It  is  the  acknowledged  policy  of  Harvard  to  trust  the 

students  as  much  as  possible." 

STUDENT'S  THEME. 


15.  Typographical  aids  to  style  (I  B  i  d). —  Students  sometimes 
resort  to  the  paltry  use  of  "(?)"  indicating  irony  and  to  underlin- 
ing (italics)  for  emphasis.  Neither  is  commendable.  Maturer 
frailties  are  the  use  of  "[sic]"  indicating  doubt  or  protest,  and  quo- 
tation marks  to  imply  that  a  word  or  phrasing  is  beneath  the  user's 
dignity.  For  such  as  for  other  unimportant  parenthetical  details 
resort  is  better  had  to  footnotes,  which  add  for  the  critical  what 
the  cursory  reader  is  glad  to  escape.  Few  students  use  them 
enough:  it  is,  however,  a  pedantry  if  footnotes  outbulk  the  text. 
So,  too,  moderation  must  rule  in  changes  of  type.  If  bold  face 
type  or  CAPITALS  or  italics  are  constantly  repeated  they  lose  the 
effect  of  strangeness  and  make  each  page  bizarre.  Their  chief 
service  is  in  textbooks  and  compendiums  to  draw  the  eye  to 
topic  phrases  or  statements.  Newspaper  headlines  show  how 
they  may  be  used  with  or  without  taste. 


16.  Idiom   (II  A  2). —  Urging   an   American   to   write   English 
with  British  idiom  is  nearly  hopeless.     The  traditional  individual 
feeling  for  what  is  uniquely  appropriate  in  English  (Sprachge- 
fuhf)  has  been  replaced  by  a  colorless  scholarly  diction.     An 
American  idiom,  very  likely,  is  developing  from  our  popular 
speech,  but  has  not  risen  to  the  sanction  of  conservative  good 
use.     Not   that   America   suffers   alone:    witness    The    King's 
English  —  a  valuable  guide  to  taste  in  phrasing.       See  also 
XXVII,  XLI,  69. 

17.  Words  newly  applied  (II  B  i  c). —  Pope  hits  at  triteness  of 
rhymes  in  the  following :  — 


"5 

" Where'er  you  find  'the  cooling  western  breeze,' 
In  the  next  line  it  '  whispers  through  the  trees ' : 
If  crystal  streams  'with  pleasing  murmurs  creep,' 
The  reader's  threaten'd  (not  in  vain)  with  'sleep':" 
Similar  dullness  infects  our  prose  phrasing  —  witness  the  lists 
of  stereotyped  trite  phrases.     To  escape  the  taint,  mere  avoid- 
ance of  what  is  notorious  does  not  suffice:    one  must  employ 
lurking  metaphors  —  as  in  associating  lurking  (which  one  usually 
couples  with  assassins  or  mischief  makers,  and  sometimes  with 
smiles  or  doubts)  with  a  word  it  seldom  accompanies. 

18.  Cooperation  of  words  (II  B  2). —  Many  words  work  well  as 
team  mates  with  others  of  closely  similar  or  violently  different 
meaning.     Thus,  glory,  honor,  renown  when  used  together  pro- 
duce a  stronger  impression  of  the  general  conception  underlying 
them.     So,  too,  if  renown  and  ignominy  are  paired,  the  distinction 
produces  a  more  vivid  conception  of  each.     Tautology  (III  A) 
works  on  the  former  principle,  antithesis  (III  B)  on  the  latter. 

19.  Colors  of  good  and  evil  (II  C  2  02]. —  The  phrase  is  used, 
much  as  in  Bacon,  for  a  method  of  prejudicing  the  reader,  by 
using  for  an  idea  words  of  markedly  pleasant  or  markedly  un- 
pleasant associations  on  the  printed  page.     A  rose  called  by  the 
name  of  cabbage  rose  does  not  smell  as  sweet.     It  is  one  thing  to 
speak  of  the  "  old  scold  who  cowhided  a  lad  for  hooking  an  apple," 
and  quite  another  to  picture  the  "  indignant  elderly  gentleman 
who  trounced  well  an  idle  urchin  for  stealing  from  his  orchard." 
Such  colors,  if  crudely  laid  on,  reveal  too  clearly  the  point  of  view. 

20.  Compression   (III  A). —  Observe  a  child's  story,  how  he 
strings  out  every  detail,  and  repeats  it,  including  much  that  you 
would  leave  to  be  read  between  the  lines.     Your  story,  to  the 
child,  is  probably  marred  by  gaps  requiring  explanation.     Ac- 
cordingly, in  writing  to  a  more  mature  or  more  highly  educated 
audience,    compress.     If   the   subject,   however,   is   more   your 
specialty  than  theirs,  expand,  remembering  that  the  specialist 
in  Greek  coins  or  municipal  government  very  likely  is  more 
ignorant  than  yourself  regarding  Laplace  or  the  skin  tackle. 

Young  writers  may  learn  something  of  the  secrets  of  Econ- 
omy by  careful  revision  of  their  own  compositions,  and  by 
careful  dissection  of  passages  selected  from  good  and  bad 


u6 

writers.  They  have  simply  to  strike  out  every  word,  every 
clause,  and  every  sentence,  the  removal  of  which  will  not 
carry  away  any  of  the  constituent  elements  of  the  thought. 
Having  done  this,  let  them  compare  the  revised  with  the 
unre vised  passages,  and  see  where  the  excision  has  improved, 
and  where  it  has  injured  the  effect. —  LEWES. 

To  teach  compactness,  usually  the  instructor  must  bluepencil 
diffuse  passages.  Several  hints,  taken  from  Bain,  should  help: 

i.  Words  involving  a  figure  serve  as  shortcuts.  "  Govern- 
ments are  not  made,  but  grow  ".  .  .  . "  Brevity  is  the  soul  of 
wit."  "  A  hand-to-mouth  liar." 

2  Abstract  nouns  sum  up  a  phrase.  "  The  passionate  con- 
fidence of  interested  falsehood  "= '  the  warm  and  eager  display  of 
assurance  by  people  who  are  lying  to  their  own  advantage.' 
Even  so  the  phrase  is  fairly  condensed. 

3.  Adjectives  used  as  nouns.     "  None  but  the  brave  deserve 
the  fair." 

4.  Adjectives  that  imply  action  or  suggest  a  picture,  especially 
participial  adjectives.     "  The  growing  labours  of  the  lengthened 
way." 

5.  Participial  phrases,  or  participles,  for  clauses.     "  United 
we  stand,  divided  we  fall." 

6.  Compounds  formed  by  prefix  or  suffix.     "  Rearranging  an 
ill-constructed  theme." 

21.  Idea  words  vs.  relation  words  (III  A  i  a). —  Study  of  any 
page  shows  that  the  ideas  are  conveyed  by  the  nouns,  verbs, 
adjectives,   and   adverbs  —  words   we   use  in   telegrams, —  the 
others  serving  chiefly  to  show  how  these  ideas  are  connected 
(prepositions,  conjunctions,  auxiliaries).     A  texture  which  alter- 
nates these  classes  somewhat  regularly  is  likely  to  be  clear  and 
graceful;  whereas  over  use  of  idea  words  results  in  obscure  con- 
ciseness.    On  the  other  hand  poverty  in  conjunctions  (which 
results  in  and-  sentences)  and  in  verbs  (which  results  in  over- 
working to  have  and  to  be)  should  be  overcome  at  once.     It  pays 
occasionally  to  write  an  exercise  without  using  and,  or  one  without 
using  any  form  of  to  have  or  to  be. 

22.  Concrete  and  abstract  (III  A  i  c). —  As  here  used,  concrete 
includes  only  those  words  and  phrases  which  awaken  a  definite 
sensuous  image  (man,  blue,  bray), —  all  other  concept  words  being 


classed  as  abstract  (humanity,  color,  hearing,  intellectual,  animad- 
vert). The  former  class  produces  a  texture  necessarily  more 
emphatic  and  impressive;  the  latter,  a  texture  of  more  precision, 
and,  since  its  ideas  are  the  more  inclusive,  of  more  conciseness. 
Description  and  narrative  resort  to  the  concrete;  exposition , 
especially  philosophic  exposition,  and  argument  deal  with  the 
abstract,  but  require  the  concrete,  as  in  examples  and  instances, 
for  impressiveness.  Words  of  emotional  value  (glory,  shame, 
pride,  love),  though  they  suggest  no  specific  image,  have  an 
effectiveness  allied  to  the  concrete. 

Exercises  in  using  each  class  predominatingly  will  teach  one 
how  to  vivify  or  subdue  the  sensational  elements  of  style. 

23.  Emphasis  (III  B). —  The  fault  of  hyperbole  attaches  to  a 
style  that  is  continually  emphatic.     Reserve  the  high  lights  for 
your  centers  of  interest :  elsewhere  a  uniform  tone  of  sensation  — 
as  in  Owen  Johnson  —  presently  jades  and  nauseates.     Ma- 
caulay  goes  too  far;  Carlyle  at  times  seems  hysterical. 

Where  emphasis  must  be  —  as  in  convincing  and  in  forcing 
memory  —  the  most  obvious  rule  "  Begin  and  end  with  words 
that  deserve  distinction  "  (Wendell)  —  the  fore-and-aft  sentence 
structure  —  is  least  obtrusive. 

24.  Finish  (III  C). —  A  plain  style  is  best  suited  to  plain  people 
and  plain  occasions.     One  should  first  show  convincing  mastery 
of  this.     Later,  a  writer  whose  thoughts  will  sustain  ornament 
should  use  it,  and  few  will  suffer  from  the  grace  of  an  occasional 
metaphor  or  antithesis,  or  an  apt  quotation.     But  richness  of 
ornament  with  poverty  of  thought  is  tawdry. 

25.  Barbarisms  in  style   (III  E  i). —  Contact  with  other  lan- 
guages has  grafted  into  English  certain  foreign  idioms,  as  the 
use  of  one  corresponding  to  French  on  dit  and  clauses  that  begin 
with  having  from  the  Latin  ablative  absolute.     Students  occa- 
sionally assume  a  light,  chatty  tone  from  French  or  an  involved 
periodic  texture  from  German.     Similarly  authors  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  from  esteem  for  Latin,  ran  to  long  Ciceronian 
periods,  as  Fuller  and  Taylor,  or  to  Caesarian  conciseness  and 
precision,  as  Sir  Thomas  Browne.     Johnson's  Latinism  appears 
in  vocabulary  and  balance.     The  early  eighteenth  century  shows 
French  influence  in  its  fastidious  clearness,  simplicity,  and  social 


n8 

grace,  especially  in  Addison.  The  involved  structure  of  Coleridge 
and  the  distorted  sentences  and  capitals  of  Carlyle  are  marks  of 
Germanized  English.  Again,  in  Pater  is  seen  the  ornateness  and 
preciosity  which  are  sometimes  called  Alexandrine  —  traits 
apparent  in  the  decline  of  Greek  and  Roman  literature. 
An  example  of  Latinism  in  sentence  structure  follows: 

Though  for  no  other  cause,  yet  for  this;  that  posteritie 
may  know  we  have  not  loosely  through  silence  permitted 
things  to  passe  away  as  in  a  dreame,  there  shall  be  for  mens 
information  extant  thus  much  concerning  the  present  state 
of  the  Church  of  God  established  amongst  us,  and  their 
carefull  endeavour  which  woulde  have  upheld  the  same.— 
HOOKER  (5),  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  Preface. 

26.  Pseudo-archaic  style. —  The  texture  of  early  writers  charms 
by  its  oddity  as  does  their  naivete.     Imitations,  such  as  Black- 
more's  "  Lorna  Doone  "  and  Maurice  Hewlitt's  "  Richard  Yea 
and  Nay,"   are  current,   as  are  stray  archaisms  in  students' 
themes.     Where  ornateness  of  this  sort  imparts  an  appropriate 
atmosphere  it  is  an  ideal  which  such  writers  as  Chatterton, 
Thomson,  Spenser,  and  Virgil  failed  to  realize  to  the  point  of 
effective   illusion.     The   insuperable    difficulty   of   being   exact 
historically  moreover  distracts  the  writer's  thought  from  more 
serious  concerns. 

27.  Vices    of    style    (III  E  3  c). —  The    beginner,   instinctively 
seeking  for  noticeable  effects,  often  adopts  unconsciously  one  or 
more  of  the  following  peculiarities  of  texture.     Any  of  these  may 
serve  a  purpose:  it  is  meaningless  repetition  of  them  that  annoys. 

i.  ADJECTIVE  &  NOUN:  each  noun  is  equipped  with  an  adjec- 
tive regardless  of  any  special  appropriateness.  "  The  last  rays 
of  the  glowing  west  shot  through  the  high-arched  window  and 
fell  across  the  massive  oak  table  with  its  enormous  platter  of 
roasted  meat  and  scattered  goblets;  even  across  the  drooping 
figure  in  the  high  carved  chair.  His  heavy  silver  necklace  of 
hand-wrought  links  caught  one  faint  beam  and  sent  back  one 
bright  spark  into  the  shadowy  room."  It  is  not  merely  a  school 
boy's  nourish:  e.  g.  "  The  same  unaffected  modesty,  and  natural 
freedom,  and  easie  vigour,  and  chearful  passions,  and  innocent 
mirth,  which  appear'd  in  all  his  [Cowley's]  Manners." — Sprat. 
As  Voltaire  remarked,  the  adjective  is  the  enemy  of  the  sub- 


H9 

stantive.  United,  each  neutralizes  the  effect  of  the  other 
(For  an  exception,  see  77).  Verb  and  adverb  are  so  linked 
less  often. 

2.  PAIRS:    two  nouns,  adjectives,  verbs,  or  adverbs  —  some- 
times linked  by  a  conjunction  appear  in  wedded  discord.  "  Masses 
of  long  brown  hair  fell  over  his  forehead  concealing  his  dark, 
lustrous  eyes.     One  saw  a  large  straight  nose  and  a  strong 
firm-set  mouth,  while  his  chin  was  covered  with  a  thick  brown 
beard."     One  more   variety  suggests  their   range:     "  As  with 
feigned  enjoyment  but  inward  misgivings  we  entered,  a  banging 
and  slamming  of  doors  greeted  us.     A  gust  of  dank,  musty 
atmosphere   opposed   and   passed   us,    clammy   and   shivering. 
Penetrating  our  ears  came  shriekings  and  moanings  which  be- 
longed more  to  imprisoned  spirits  than  to  harmless  winds." 

3.  TRIADS  :  here  the  parts  of  speech  are  marshalled  in  groups  of 
three.     "  The  book  is  a  wonderfully  strong,  vivid,  and  realistic 
story  of  life  among  the  tenements.     It  shows  the  struggling, 
narrow,  and  sordid  life  of  that  lower  class.     Honest  men,  inno- 
cent young  girls,  and  coarse,  drunken  women  live  side  by  side  in 
this  world  of  poverty,  dissoluteness,  and  crime.     Young  lives  are 
stifled,  smothered,  and  burned  out  in  the  white  heat  of  depravity; 
they  are  kindling  in  this  furnace  of  iniquity;   they  are  licked  up 
by  the  greedy  flames  of  poverty;   they  are  martyrs  in  this  Hell 
on  earth." 

4.  ALLITERATION:    "  alliteration's  aptful  art  "  inaptfully  ap- 
plied.    "  The  great,  golden  sun  was  slowly  sinking  and  would 
soon  lie  on  the  silent  sea.".  .  .  ."  For  thus  failing  to  fulfill  the 
prescription  for  Freshmen  I  feel  justified  in  shifting  the  blame." 
.  . .  . "  The  sweet  themes  of  the  pieces  went  straight  to  the  heart, 
leaving  there  a  strange  feeling  of  sad  happiness.".  ..  .Meter 
occasionally  adds  to  the  emphasis:   "  I  tossed  it  onto  my  desk  in 
disgust  and  returned  to  the  depth  of  despair.".  .  .  .Peril  lurks 
also  in  the  closing  syllable:    "The  following  definition,  then,  I 
think  may  serve  as  a  fitting  conclusion,  and  will  obviate  the 
situation    with    no    further    explanations."     Read    Stevenson's 
"  Technical  Elements  of  Style,"  Contents  of  the  phrase. 

5.  THE:    incessant  repetition  of  the  definite  article.     "The 
intense  heat  of  the  pelting  sun,  the  smoke  from  the  burning  of  the 
brushes,  the  dry  air  of  the  desert,  and  the  pain  of  breathing  the 
thick  dust  into  the  lungs, —  these  were  the  pernicious  conditions 
which  were  driving  us  to  insanity." 


I2O 

6.  PREPOSITIONAL  PHRASES:    students    who    have  outgrown 
successive  relative  clauses  —  House-that-jack-built  sentences  — 
still  fall  into  a  diminuendo  movement  with  prepositions.     "  The 
young  man  was  seated  at  the  piano  in  the  corner  of  the  cheery 
living  room  of  his  bungalow  in  the  Catskills.".  .  .  ."  We  were 
coming  down  the  little  slope  in  front  of  our  house  at  the  usual 
reduced  rate  of  speed  before  making  the  turn  from  the  road  into 
our  drive  at  the  right.".  .  .  .Even  without  a  diminuendo  move- 
ment this  vice  annoys:    "  The  little  boat  bobbed  softly  up  and 
down  on  the  bright  water;   there  was  no  sound  except  the  soft 
slap  slap  of  the  baby  waves  against  the  worn  white  paint  of  the 
bow.     A  tiny,  fresh  breeze  was  blowing  from  the  ocean;    but  on 
the  harbor  there  was  merely  a  stirring  of  the  cool  air  which  served 
to  mitigate  the  warm  rays  of  the  sun.     The  white  sail  of  the  boat 
stood  out  in  sharp  relief  against  the  warm  blue  of  the  water." 

7.  'To  BE'  AND  '  TO  HAVE  ':    overworking  the  copula,  com- 
pound tenses,  or  the  passive  voice.     Sometime  write  a  theme 
excluding  all  forms  of  these  verbs.     It  proves  an  easy  task;  and 
the  theme  will  surprise  you  with  its  vigor  and  firmness. 

28.  Solecisms  of  style  (III  E  4). —  Like  the  faulty  constructions 
of  a  school  boy's  grammar  are  certain  confusions  due  to  preoccu- 
pation with  details,  whereby  the  bearing  of  parts  through  inat- 
tention becomes  inappropriate.  So  in  mixed  metaphors:  the 
writer,  seized  by  a  new  figure,  lets  go  the  first  and  finds  himself  a 
prey  to  both ;  as  in  Addison's  ill  famed  couplet :  - 

"  I  bridle  in  my  struggling  muse  with  pain 
That  longs  to  launch  into  a  bolder  strain." 

Horse,  boat,  and  music  are  hard  to  reconcile.  .  .  .Confusion  of 
tenses  arises  chiefly  from  an  excitable  use  of  the  historical  present 
from  which  the  writer  presently  lapses  into  normal  preterites. 
Confusion  of  preterite  and  pluperfect  is  grammatical  rather  than 
rhetorical ....  Violation  of  view  point  in  description  and  narra- 
tive goes  beyond  the  crass  inclusion  of  vistas  the  spectator  could 
not  see  and  verbatim  reports  no  memory  could  transmit :  it  may 
run  through  the  fibre  of  a  sketch  or  story,  involving  as  it  does 
precision  of  character  drawing ....  Bathos,  Pope's  coinage  to 
express  unintended  anticlimax  in  a  failure  to  rise  to  pathos, 
occurs  rarely  except  in  emotional  style.  Then,  it  results  from 
introduction  of  some  image  or  thought  of  commonplace  or  non- 


121 

passionate  nature.  Harvard  men  note  as  an  instance  the  college 
song:  "  For  God,  for  country,  and  for  Yale." 

29.   Jocoseness  a  vice  (III  E  5  a). —  The  objection  to  jocoseness 

is  not  to  the  humor  or  wit,  but  that  it  is  not  suited  to  the  occasion. 

The  amusing  is  never  good  in  the  serious  style,  since  it 

never  bears  on  more  than  one  side  of  any  object,  and  that 

not  the  side  to  be  considered :   it  turns  in  nearly  every  case 

on  false  analogies  or  on  ambiguity;    the  result  being  that 

most  professional  wits  have  minds  as  untrustworthy  as  they 

are   superficial. —  VOLTAIRE    (translation). 

jo.  Planes  of  style  (III  E  5) . —  In  a  democracy  the  old  division  of 
style  according  to  social  status,  which  consecrated  the  heroic 
style  to  gods,  heroes,  or  royalty  and  the  pastoral  to  country  folk 
or  make-believe  country  folk,  has  lost  force;  but  there  is  an 
intellectual  aristocracy  of  subject  and  mood:  this  should  rele- 
gate each  piece  of  writing  to  a  more  or  less  fixed  plane  —  to 
soar  above  which  is  bombast,  to  sink  below  it  a  species  of  bathos. 
The  routine  of  life  and  commonplace  sentiments  seem  consonant 
with  a  plain,  direct,  and  natural  style;  exposition  and  argument 
of  aesthetic  or  philosophic  character  require  more  dignity  and 
admit  of  some  ornamentation;  the  conveyance  of  penetrating 
truth  or  expression  of  exalted  or  intense  feeling  almost  instinc- 
tively takes  on  a  cadence  and  ornateness  which  without  such 
occasion  would  be  frigid. 

ji.  Sequence  (IV  A). —  Each  ensuing  thought  should  seem 
born,  not  made.  Therefore  the  best  writing  proceeds  spontane- 
ously. "  Nur  ein  Hauch  sei  dein  Gedicht,"  said  Goethe.  It  is 
best  to  write  from  a  well  matured  plan  without  hesitation,  leaving 
finesse  for  revision  of  the  rough  draft.  Of  the  two  general  types: 
i)  answering  the  questions  likely  to  be  prompted  by  a  reader's 
curiosity;  2)  proceeding  by  logical  routine, —  the  former  makes 
for  vivacity,  interest,  and  emphasis;  the  latter,  for  clearness  and 
logical  coherence.  It  is  the  difference  between  teaching  the 
student  and  teaching  the  study. 

j2.  Reflex  movement  (IV  A  3). —  The  tendency  of  thought  to 
pass  on,  one  idea  lapsing  as  another  comes  in  view,  is  opposed 
to  reconsideration  (to  reflexion).  For  this  reason  repetition  in 


122 

echoes,  transitional  statements,  and  summaries  subject  important 
points  to  frequent  and  easy  recall.  Within  narrower  bounds  the 
same  purpose  is  effected  by  parallel  construction  and  balance; 
by  the  suspense  of  the  periodic  sentence,  and  by  such  minor 
devices  as  the  Euphuistic  transverse  alliteration  or  Raleigh's 
distortion  of  parallel  construction  (familiar  in  Shakespeare's 
line,  "The  courtier's,  scholar's,  soldier's  eye,  tongue,  sword"). 

1  2  3213 

Continued  impeding  of  the  natural  onward  sweep  of  thought  is 
found  vexatious  and  artificial;  never  to  impede  it  is  to  forfeit 
all  hope  of  retention. 

jj.  Patchwork  (VA2d). —  At  a  time  when  literary  property 
had  less  value  than  today,  it  was  none  the  less  intellectually 
discreditable  to  be  the  "  pickpurse  of  another's  wit."  Com- 
parison of  the  following  passage  with  that  from  Jonson  (VII) 
will  suggest  the  fact  that  his  book  called  "  Timber  "  is  largely  a 
"  thing  of  threads  and  patches." 

I  enjoin,  that  such  as  are  beginning  the  practice  of  com- 
position, write  slowly  and  with  anxious  deliberation.  Their 
great  object  at  first  should  be,  to  write  as  well  as  possible; 
practice  will  enable  them  to  write  speedily.  By  degrees, 
matter  will  offer  itself  still  more  readily;  words  will  be  at 
hand;  composition  will  flow;  every  thing,  as  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  a  well-ordered  family,  will  present  itself  in  its  proper 
place.  The  sum  of  the  whole  is  this;  by  hasty  composition 
we  shall  never  acquire  the  art  of  composing  well ;  by  writing 
well,  we  shall  come  to  write  speedily. —  QUINTILIAN,  as 
quoted  by  Blair,  Lect.  XIX. 

The  practice  nowr  is  to  acknowledge  borrowing  by  quotation 
marks,  footnotes,  and  explicit  reference  to  each  source.  And 
such  borrowing  must  not  be  too  extensive  lest  readers  mistake  the 
writer  for  a  mere  annotator  of  other  people's  thought. 


SENTENCES. 

As  the  word  is  the  basic  unit  of  language,  so  is  the  sentence  of 
style.  Thought  naturally  proceeds,  as  in  speech,  by  means  of 
sentences  of  a  single  clause  or  of  a  main  clause  followed  in  after- 
thought by  a  qualification.  Such  sentences,  transferred  to- 
writing,  and  connected  by  and,  but,  or  their  like,  become  a  series 
of  loosely  knit  units  which  Stevenson  characterized  as  "  the 
babbling  of  the  old  chronicler."  Examples  no  better  than 
students'  work  of  today  abound  in  early  literature. 

When  a  traveller  returneth  home,  let  him  not  leave  the 
countries  where  he  hath  travelled  altogether  behind  him,, 
but  maintain  a  correspondence  by  letters  with  those  of  his 
acquaintance  which  are  of  most  worth,  and  let  his  travel 
appear  rather  in  his  discourse  than  in  his  apparel  or  gesture; 
and  in  his  discourse  let  him  be  rather  advised  in  his  answers,, 
than  forward  to  tell  stories;  and  let  it  appear  that  he  doth 
not  change  his  country  manners  for  those  of  foreign  parts; 
but  only  prick  in  some  flowers  of  that  he  hath  learned  abroad 
into  the  customs  of  his  own  country. —  BACON  (6),  Of  Travel. 

Bacon  here  uses  the  school-boy  conjunctions;  the  objection  is 
somewhat  lessened  when  definite  connectives  establish  clear 
relations  of  thought.  Fundamentally,  however,  such  a  style  is 
choppy  and  ill  suited  to  sustained  flights.  It  does  relieve  a 
texture  of  pregnant  implication. 

Affected  dispatch  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  things  to 
business  that  can  be:  it  is  like  that  which  the  physicians 
call  predigestion,  or  hasty  digestion,  which  is  sure  to  fill 
the  body  full  of  crudities,  and  secret  seeds  of  diseases: 
therefore  measure  not  dispatch  by  the  times  of  sitting,  but 
by  the  advancement  of  the  business:  and,  as  in  races,  it  is 
not  the  large  stride,  or  high  lift,  that  niakes  the  speed;  so 
in  business,  the  keeping  close  to  the  matter,  and  not  taking 
of  it  too  much  at  once,  procureth  dispatch. —  BACON  (6), 
Of  Dispatch. 

In  opposition  to  this  loose  style  is  the  periodic,  or,  as  Aristotle 
calls  it,  the  introverted  (Xe£is  KaTeaTpa^evrj)  by  which  the  quali- 
fication is  introduced  first  and  the  main  statement  reserved  as  a 
climax.  Such  a  style  in  speech  is  stilted;  in  writing,  used  mod- 


124 

erately,  it  serves  for  emphasis  and  to  check  the  onward  flow  of 
natural  sequence:  it  forces  attention  and  deliberation. 

To  feel  the  full  value  of  these  lives,  as  occasions  of  hope  and 

provocation,  you  must  come  to  know,  that  each  admirable 

genius  is  but  a  successful  diver  in  that  sea  whose  floor  of 

pearls  is  all  your  own. —  EMERSON   (35),  Literary  Ethics. 

Sentences  of  a  single  clause  admit  of  little  complication  beyond 

inversion:      In   expository   writing  the   first   aim   is   clearness. 

3  ~2  1 

Different  arrangements  will  serve  varied  purposes,  either  of 
emphasis,  or  to  bring  words  near  others  in  neighbor  sentences. 
Great  diversity  sets  in,  however,  with  the  employment  of  two 
clauses,  so  that  students  should  readily  learn  to  avoid  the  tame- 
ness  and  poverty  of  monotonous  sentence  structure.  Consider 
the  subjoined  diagram: 
when 


while 

after  and 


before 
if 


I  came  in 


unless  nevertheless 


but 
therefore 


Tom  went  out 


because  t 

Or,  transfer  the  first  list  to  the  place  of  the  second.  Any  of 
these  simple  types  may  be  indefinitely  enlarged  by  complicating 
either  the  subject  or  the  predicate, —  enhancing  it  by  (i)  words 
or  phrases  in  apposition,  (2)  relative  clauses,  (3)  prepositional 
phrases,  (4)  participial  clauses.  Any  of  these  amplifications  may 
appear  singly  or  in  series,  and  methods  of  inversion  will  multiply 
varieties.  If  finally  the  sentence  be  made  to  consist  of  three  or 
more  main  members,  apparently  endless  diversification  ensues. 

Without  scientific  classification,  the  ensuing  sentences,  if 
studied  and  imitated,  should  at  once  greatly  enlarge  one's  ability 
to  shape  ideas.  Meantime,  care  to  vary  in  length,  beginning 
now  with  a  conjunction,  now  with  a  subordinate  phrase  or  clause, 
now  with  the  subject,  will  at  once  relieve  obtrusive  monotony. 

Hence  it  is  that  it  is  almost  Hereby  we  learn  that  it  is 
a  definition  of  a  gentleman  to  almost  a  proof  of  dullness  to 
say  he  is  one  who  never  inflicts  find  that  a  writer  is  one  who 
pain. —  NEWMAN.  rarely  varies  his  sentences.— 

Imitation. 

Notice  that  in  such  imitation  the  idea  words  (cf.  p.  116) 
should  be  varied  while  the  relation  words  may  remain  similar  or 


125 

identical.     One  should  altogether  change  the  subject  and  thought, 
but  retain  as  nearly  as  possible  the  structure. 

i.   Short  sentences: 
A  Balance 

Eyes  is  he  to  the  blind,  feet  is  he  to  the  lame. —  EMERSON, 
Literary  Ethics. 

Accuracy  alone  is  not  a  thing  to  be  sought,  but  accuracy 
and  dash. —  PALMER. 

Please  himself  with  complaisance  who  will, —  for  me, 
things  must  take  my  scale,  not  I  theirs. —  EMERSON, 
Literary  Ethics. 

B  List 

English  study  has  four  aims :  the  mastery  of  our  language 
as  a  science,  as  a  history,  as  a  joy,  and  as  a  tool. —  PALMER, 
Self-Cultivation  in  English. 

Let  enjoyment  go,  let  history  go,  let  science  go,  and  still 
English  remains  —  English  as  a  tool. —  PALMER. 

c  Inversion 

Because  the  scholar,  by  every  thought  he  thinks,  extends 
his  dominion  into  the  general  mind  of  men,  he  is  not  one, 
but  many. —  EMERSON,  Literary  Ethics. 

'Iliads  without  a  Homer,'  some  one  has  called,  with  a 
little  exaggeration,  the  beautiful  but  anonymous  ballad 
poetry  of  Spain. —  TRENCH,  Study  of  Words  (1888)  p.  47. 

Peers  of  Great  Britain  become  as  penitent  as  the  sover- 
eign of  Prussia. —  BURKE,  A  Letter  to  Wm.  Elliot  Esq. 

So  mutually  dependent  are  we  that  on  our  swift  and  full 
communication  with  one  another  is  staked  the  success  of 
almost  every  scheme  we  form. —  PALMER. 

D  Parallel 

A  sentence  must  be  compelled  to  say  a  single  thing;  a 
paragraph,  a  single  thing;  an  essay,  a  single  thing. — 
PALMER. 


126 

E  Apposition 

What  is  all  history  but  the  work  of  ideas,  a  record  of  the 
incomputable  energy  which  his  infinite  aspirations  infuse 
into  man? —  EMERSON,  The  Method  of  Nature. 

2.    Medium  length: 
A  Transitional 

After  these  two  noble  fruits  of  friendship  (peace  in  the 
affections,  and  support  of  the  judgment),  followeth  the 
last  fruit,  which  is  like  the  pomegranate,  full  of  many 
kernels;  I  mean  aid,  and  bearing  a  part  in  all  actions  and 
occasions. —  BACON,  Of  Friendship. 

B  Concluding 

For  this  reason,  because  more  than  health,  wealth,  and 
beauty,  literary  style  may  be  called  the  man,  good  judges 
have  found  in  it  the  final  test  of  culture,  and  have  said 
that  he  and  he  alone  is  a  well-educated  person  who  uses 
his  language  with  power  and  beauty. —  PALMER. 

c  Periodic 

"  Freedom  of  thought,  being  intimately  connected  with 
the  happiness  and  dignity  of  man  in  every  stage  of  his 
being,  is  of  so  much  more  importance  than  the  preserva- 
tion of  any  constitution,  that  to  infringe  the  former  under 
pretence  of  supporting  the  latter  is  to  sacrifice  the  means 
to  the  end."  —  HALL. 

D  Apposition 

Neither  years  nor  books  have  yet  availed  to  extirpate  a 
prejudice  then  rooted  in  me,  that  a  scholar  is  the  favorite 
of  Heaven  and  earth,  the  excellency  of  his  country,  the 
happiest  of  men. —  EMERSON,  Literary  Ethics. 

He  is  unwise,  however  busy,  who  does  not  have  his  loved 
authors,  veritable  friends  with  whom  he  takes  refuge  in 
the  intervals  of  work,  and  by  whose  intimacy  he  enlarges, 
refines,  sweetens,  and  emboldens  his  own  limited  existence. 
—  PALMER. 


127 

The  opposite  of  this,  the  disposition  to  set  correctness 
above  expressiveness,  produces  that  peculiarly  vulgar 
diction  known  as  "school-ma'am  English,"  in  which  for 
the  sake  of  a  dull  accord  with  usage  all  the  picturesque, 
imaginative,  and  forceful  employment  of  words  is  sacri- 
ficed.—  PALMER. 

What  we  should  seek  is  to  contribute  to  each  of  the  little 
companies  with  which  our  life  is  bound  up  a  gently  en- 
larging influence,  such  impulses  as  will  not  startle  or 
create  detachment,  but  which  may  save  from,  humdrum, 
routine,  and  dreary  usualness. —  PALMER. 

E  Balance 

The  world  generally  gives  its  admiration,  not  to  the  man 
who  does  what  nobody  else  even  attempts  to  do,  but  to 
the  man  who  does  best  what  multitudes  do  well. — 
MACAULAY,  on  Aikin's  Addison. 

No  body  can  be  healthful  without  exercise,  neither  natural 
body  nor  politic;  and,  certainly,  to  a  kingdom  or  estate, 
a  just  and  honorable  war  is  the  true  exercise. —  BACON, 
Of  the  True  Greatness  of  Kingdoms  and  Estates. 
She  seems  to  have  written  about  the  Elizabethan  age 
because  she  had  read  much  about  it;  she  seems,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  have  read  a  little  about  the  age  of  Addison 
because  she  had  determined  to  write  about  it. —  MACAU- 
LAY,  on  Aikin's  Addison. 

Is  a  man  boastful  and  knowing,  and  his  own  master?  — 
we  turn  from  him  without  hope :  but  let  him  be  filled  with 
awe  and  dread  before  the  Vast  and  the  Divine,  which 
uses  him  glad  to  be  used,  and  our  eye  is  rivetted  to  the 
chain  of  events. —  EMERSON,  The  Method  of  Nature. 
Persistence,  care,  discriminating  observation,  ingenuity, 
refusal  to  lose  heart, —  traits  which  in  every  other  occu- 
pation tend  toward  excellence, —  tend  toward  it  here  with 
special  security. —  PALMER. 

You  " cannot  bathe  twice  in  the  same  river,"  said  Heracli- 
tus,  for  it  is  renewed  every  moment;  and  I  add,  a  man 


128 

never  sees  the  same  object  twice:  with  his  own  enlarge- 
ment the  object  acquires  new  aspects. —  EMERSON,  The 
Method  of  Nature. 

Revenge  is  a  kind  of  wild  justice,  which  the  more  a  man's 
nature  runs  to,  the  more  ought  law  to  weed  it  out:  for  as 
for  the  first  wrong,  it  doth  but  offend  the  law,  but  the 
revenge  of  that  wrong  putteth  the  law  out  of  office. — 
BACON,  Of  Revenge. 

F  List 

Here  is  the  brevity,  the  good  taste,  the  light  touch,  the 
neat  epigram,  the  avoidance  of  whatever  might  stir  pas- 
sion, controversy,  or  laborious  thought,  which  characterize 
the  conversation  of  a  well-bred  man. —  PALMER. 
It  is  doubtful  if  Homer  knew  writing,  certain  that  he 
knew  profoundly  every  quality  of  the  tongue, —  veracity, 
vividness,  shortness  of  sentence,  simplicity  of  thought, 
obligation  to  insure  swift  apprehension. —  PALMER. 
It  is  good  in  discourse,  and  speech  of  conversation  to  vary, 
and  intermingle  speech  of  the  present  occasion  with  argu- 
ments, tales  with  reasons,  asking  of  questions  with  telling 
of  opinions,  and  jest  with  earnest;  for  it  is  a  dull  thing 
to  tire,  and  as  we  say  now,  to  jade  anything  too  far. — 
BACON,  Of  Discourse. 

G    Miscellaneous 

There  is,  however,  no  funeral  so  sad  to  follow  as  the  funeral 
of  our  own  youth,  which  we  have  been  pampering  with 
fond  desires,  ambitious  hopes,  and  all  the  bright  berries 
that  hang  in  poisonous  clusters  over  the  path  of  life. — 
LANDOR,  Bossuet  and  Fontanges. 

The  very  formation  of  the  outward  product  extends, 
sharpens,  enriches  the  mind  which  produces,  so  that  [?] 
he  who  gives  forth  little,  after  a  time  is  likely  enough  to 
discover  that  he  has  little  to  give  forth. —  PALMER. 
A  contemporary  of  Newton  and  Leibnitz,  sharing,  there- 
fore, in  the  intellectual  activity  of  that  remarkable  age 
which  witnessed  the  birth  of  modern  physical  science, 


I2Q 

Benoit  de  Maillet  spent  a  long  life  as  a  consular  agent  of 
the  French  government  in  various  Mediterranean  ports. — • 
HUXLEY,  Darwin  on  the  Origin  of  Species. 
First,  I  consider  whether  what  I  am  about  to  say  is  true; 
then  whether  I  can  say  it  with  brevity,  in  such  a  manner 
as  that  others  shall  see  it  as  clearly  as  I  do  in  the  light  of 
truth;  for,  if  they  survey  it  as  an  ingenuity,  my  desire  is 
ungratified,  my  duty  unfulfilled. —  LANDOR,  Epictetus  and 
Seneca. 

We  may  largely  choose  the  influences  to  which  we  submit; 
we  may  exercise  a  selective  attention  among  these  in- 
fluences; we  may  enjoy,  oppose,  modify,  or  diligently 
ingraft  what  is  conveyed  to  us, —  and  for  doing  any  one 
of  these  things  rationally  we  must  be  guided  by  some  clear 
aim. —  PALMER. 

Longer  sentences 

On  the  ceiling  at  which  you  are  looking,  there  is  no  gilding 
and  little  painting  —  a  mere  trellis  of  vines  bearing  grapes, 
and  the  heads,  shoulders,  and  arms,  rising  from  the  cornice 
only,  of  boys  and  girls  climbing  up  to  steal  them,  and 
scrambling  for  them:  nothing  over-head;  no  giants 
tumbling  down,  no  Jupiter  thundering,  no  Mars  and 
Venus  caught  at  Mid-day,  no  river  gods  pouring  out  their 
urns  upon  us;  for,  as  I  think  nothing  so  insipid  as  a  flat 
ceiling,  I  think  nothing  so  absurd  as  a  storied  one. — 
LANDOR,  Lucullus  and  Caesar. 

As  for  nobility  in  particular  persons,  it  is  a  reverend  thing 
to  see  an  ancient  castle  or  building  not  in  decay,  or  to  see  a 
fair  timber-tree  sound  and  perfect;  how  much  more  to 
behold  an  ancient  noble  family,  which  hath  stood  against 
the  waves  and  weathers  of  time!  for  new  nobility  is  but 
the  act  of  power,  but  ancient  nobility  is  the  act  of  time. — 
BACON,  Of  Nobility. 

"  While  from  the  depths  of  ocean  the  wail  of  innocent 
victims,  the  cries  of  children  and  mothers  cast  away  by  an 
atrocious  crime,  fill  the  whole  thinking  world  with  sorrow 


and  wrath,  France,  whose  indomitable  heroism  had  broken 
the  effort  of  barbarism;  France,  who  bears  with  un- 
equalled glory  the  heaviest  weight  of  war;  France,  who 
pours  forth  her  blood  not  for  her  own  liberty  alone,  but  for 
the  liberty  of  others  and  for  honor  —  France  gives  fraternal 
greeting,  as  to  a  presage  of  triumphant  right,  to  the  flight 
of  Roman  eagles;  she  feels,  from  end  to  end  of  the  earth, 
the  heart-beat  of  quivering  peoples,  some  to  whom  the 
favorable  instant  is  now  offered,  some  unquiet  and  others 
bruised  —  the  kindling  of  revolt  of  the  universal  conscience 
against  the  foolish  pride  of  a  caste  of  prey."  DESCHANEL 
(translation:  Nation,  June  17,  1915,  C.  No.  2607,  p.  676). 

See  also  MODELS,  nos.  16,  64,  66. 


CONNECTIVE  EXPRESSIONS. 


In  developing  a  topic  according  to  some  fixed  method,  one  or 
another  of  the  following  groups  of  connectives  will  come  in  play 
to  express  clearly  the  relations  of  the  component  ideas.  The 
list  is  offered  as  a  guide  to  the  right  connectives,  with  some 
synonyms  for  variation.  Practice  in  the  use  of  conjunctions 
goes  a  long  way  toward  ensuring  a  clear  understanding  of  the 
relations  of  ideas.  Logical  arrangement  and  coherence  usually 
follow. 


ADDITIONAL  ITEMS: 
and 
also 
again 
moreover 
besides 
then  too 
further 
furthermore 
yet  another 
yet  again 
add  to  this 
once  more 

CAUSAL  RELATION: 

1  Introducing  a  reason, - 

for 

since 

because 

2  Drawing  a  conclusion,  - 
a     (similarity) 

thus 

accordingly 
so 

b     (spatial) 
hence 


therefore 
wherefore 

c     (post  hoc) 
whence 
consequently 
it  follows  that 
then 

d     (illative) 

for  this  reason 
because  of  this 
as  a  result 
ergo 

COMPARISON: 

1  Similarity, — 

so  too 

likewise 

similarly 

in  like  manner 

here  again 

such 

2  Contrast, — 

conversely . 

contrariwise 

on  the  other  hand 


132 


CONDITIONS: 

1  Favorable, — 
a     (assured) 

provided  (supposing) 

that 

in  this  case  (event) 
this  (that)  being  so 
under  these  (such)  cir- 
cumstances 
b    (doubtful) 
if 
unless 

2  Adverse, — 

a     (inadequate) 

though 

although 

despite 

in  spite  of 

notwithstanding 

even  though 

be  that  as  it  may 

b    (insuperable) 

were  it  not  that 

but  for 

otherwise 

else 

only 

CONVICTION  : 

I     Affirmative, — 
possibly 
perhaps 
probably 
no  doubt 
doubtless 
undoubtedly 
surely 
certainly 


Concessive, — 
granted 
it  is  true 
to  be  sure 
in  fact 
of  course 
indeed 

Controversial, — 

but 

yet 

however 

at  the  same  time 

still 

nevertheless 

notwithstanding 

none  the  less 

to  (on)  the  contrary 
Insistent, — 

after  all 

at  all  events 

even  so 

for  all  that 

at  least 


LISTS: 


Series, — 

first,  secondly,  etc. 
namely 
as  follows 

Instances, — 

in  particular 

for  example 

for  instance 

to  illustrate 
Pairs, — 

the  one.  .  .the  other 

the  former .  .  .  the  latter 


133 


this(these).  .that (those) 
here . . .  there 

4    Related  groups  (usually  pairs), 

either ...  or 
neither. .  .nor 
whether. .  .or 
whereas. .  .yet 
though.  .  .yet 
wherever . . .  there 
as. . .so 
since.  .  .then 
the  more. .  .the  more 
not  only . . .  but  also 

RELATIVE  VALUES: 

primarily,     secondarily, 

etc. 

chiefly 
above  all 
especially 
even  more 
all  the  more 
how  much  more 

SEQUENCE  IN  TIME: 

1  Anterior, — 

before 

previously 

ere  this 

earlier 

heretofore 

formerly 

erstwhile 

2  Contemporary, — 

when 
while 
in  the  mean  time 


as 
meanwhile 

3  Posterior, — 

after 

later 

subsequently 

hereupon 

thereafter 

thereupon 

whereupon 

then 

upon  this 

shortly 

hereafter 

whereafter 

4  Retrospective, — 

by  that  time 
already 
at  last 
at  length 

5  Prospective, — 

henceforth 
thenceforth 
ever 
always 

TRANSITION: 

1  Introducing  a  topic, — 

as  for 

with  respect  (regard)  to 

concerning 

in  re 

now 

2  Repeating, — 

in  other  words 
that  is 
I  repeat 


134 


this  is  as  much  as  to  say 
as  I  have  said 

3  Parenthetical, — 
a  (before) 

in  passing 
incidentally 
a  propos 
by  the  way 
farther  on 
we  shall  see  later 
b  (after) 
to  return 
to  resume 
to  continue 

4  Retrospective, — 

hitherto 

up  to  this  point 

so  far 

5  Changing  tone, — 
a     (earnestness) 

jesting  aside 

in  all  seriousness 


b     (candor) 
frankly 
for  my  part 
you  see 

c     (coming  to  terms) 

in  point  of  fact 
as  a  matter  of  fact 
to  come  to  the  point 
on  the  whole 

6  Summarizing, — 

in  short 
in  a  word 
in  brief 
in  general 
to  sum  up 
to  recapitulate 

7  Terminating, — 

to  conclude 

lastly 

finally 

in  conclusion 


HISTORICAL  REVIEW. 

(The  list  number  appears  also  in  both  Precepts  and  Models 
immediately  after  the  author's  name.  Although  primarily  this 
facilitates  consecutive  reading  in  the  same  author,  it  also  permits 
an  historical  survey  of  English  style  sufficiently  detailed  to  make 
out  the  characteristics  of  the  centuries  and  to  offer  material  for 
exercises  in  the  modernization  of  early  passages.) 

Foreign  authors 

Wisdom  of  the  Son  of  Sirach  (Ecclesiasticus)  53. 
LONGINUS,  XXVI,  XLII. 

QUINTILIAN,    VIII. 

ST.  AUGUSTINE,  71. 


135 

BUFFON,  II,  XV,  XVII,  XIX,  XX,  XXXVI,  XXXVIII, 

XLIV. 

VOLTAIRE,  III. 
SCHOPENHAUER,  XIV. 

English  rhetoricians 

KAMES,  Henry  Home,  Lord  (1696-1782)  XLIII. 
BLAIR,  Hugh  (1718-1800)  XXIX. 
BAIN,  Alexander  (1818-1903)  XXVIII. 

Periodical 

N.Y.  Nation,  55. 

Student's  theme,  8. 

English  authors 

XV  Century. 

1  CAXTON,  William  (i422?-i49i)  I,  10. 

XVI  Century. 

2  BERNERS,  John  Bourchier,  Lord  (1478-1533)  37. 

3  LYLY,  John  (1554-1606)  45. 

4  SIDNEY,  Philip  (1554-1 586)749. 

5  HOOKER,  Richard  (1553-1600)  38,  59. 

XVII  Century. 

6  BACON,  Francis  (1561-1626)  19,  26,  30. 

7  JONSON,  Ben  (1573-1637)  VII. 

8  BURTON,  Robert  (1577-1640)  54. 

9  BROWNE,  Thomas  (1605-1682)  70,  80. 

10  MILTON,  John  (1608-1674)  n,  61. 

11  TAYLOR,  Jeremy  (1613-1667)  60. 

12  COWLEY,  Abraham  (1618-1667)  46. 
i2a  DRYDEN,  John  (1631?-!  700)  8a. 

XVIII  Century. 

13  SWIFT,  Jonathan  (1667-1745)  20,  56. 

14  ADDISON,  Joseph  (1672-1719)  63,  81. 

15  STEELE,  Richard  (1672-1729)  72. 

1 6  CHESTERFIELD,  Philip   Dormer  Stanhope,  Earl  of  (1694- 
1773) V. 


136 

iy  FRANKLIN,  Benjamin  (1706-1790)  IX. 

18  JOHNSON,  Samuel  (1709-1784)  XII,  9. 

19  GOLDSMITH,  Oliver  (1728-1774)  44. 

20  BURKE,  Edmund  (1729-1797)  22,  67,  69,  76. 

21  GIBBON,  Edward  (1737-1794)  XXXIX. 

22  SHERIDAN,  Richard  Brinsley  Butler  (1751-1816)  66. 

23  Anonymous  (quoted  by  Jeffrey)  79. 

XIX  Century. 

24  WORDSWORTH,  William  (1770-1850)  21. 

25  COLERIDGE,  Samuel  Taylor  (1772-1834)  XXIII,  XXXV,  XL. 

26  LAMB,  Charles  (1775-1834)  31,  50. 

27  HAZLITT,  William  (1778-1830)  24,  51. 

28  HUNT,  James  Henry  Leigh  (1784-1859)  6. 

29  DEQUINCEY,  Thomas  (1785-1859)  IV,  XXX,  XXXIII. 

30  MITFORD,  Mary  Russell  (1786-1855)  57. 

31  CARLYLE,  Thomas  (1795-1881)  5,  82. 

32  MACAULAY,  Thomas  Babington  (1800-1859)  4,  14. 

33  MILL,  John  Stuart  (1806-1873)  12,  48. 

34  NEWMAN,    John    Henry    (1801-1890)    XI,    XIII,    XXXI, 
XXXII,  XXXVII,  XLI,  7,  15,  16,  25,  40,  41,  43,  62,  78,  83. 

35  EMERSON,  Ralph  Waldo  (1803-1882)  29,  32,  74. 

36  POE,  Edgar  Allan  (1809-1849)  XXI. 

37  THACKERAY,  William  Makepeace  (1811-1863)  42. 

38  ELIOT,  George  (1819-1880)  28. 

39  LEWES,  George  Henry  (1817-1878)  XXIV,  XXVII,  XXXIV. 

40  RUSKIN,  John  (1819-1900)  2,  39,  64,  85. 

41  TRENCH,  Richard  Chenevix  (1807-1886)  35,  36. 

42  HUXLEY,  Thomas  Henry  (1825-1895)  47. 

43  ARNOLD,  Matthew  (1822-1888)  18,  58. 

44  PATER,  Walter  Horatio  (1839-1894)  XXV,  27,  34,  68,  84. 

45  CLIFFORD,  William  Kingdon  (1845-1879)  13,  17,  75. 

46  STEVENSON,  Robert  Louis  Balfour  (1850-1894)  X,  XVI „ 
XXII,  3,  33,  52,  77. 

47  JAMES,  William  (1842-1910)  65. 

48  HARRISON,  Frederick,  VI,  XVIII,  73- 

49  GOSSE,  Edmund  William,  I. 

50  LUCAS,  E.  V.,  23. 


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